BPN649: Magnetic Particle Flow Cytometer

Circulating tumor cells can be found in peripheral blood in cancer patients and their number correlates to the stage of cancer. Currently, fluorescent markers are used to tag the cancerous cells to count them with a flow cytometer which requires multiple sample preparation steps such as centrifugation, erythrocyte lysis, etc. The use of magnetic microparticle labels instead can significantly simplify sample preparation and can enable point-of- care diagnostic devices to detect cancerous cells. We have demonstrated an integrated prototype which includes a CMOS chip, microfluidics, and data acquisition setup for this purpose.

Project end date: 01/26/16