Ovarian cancer is the leading cause of death from gynecological malignancies in women. The primary challenge is the detection of the cancer at an early stage, since this drastically increases the survival rate. In this study we investigated the dielectrophoretic responses of progressive stages of mouse ovarian surface epithelial (MOSE) cells, as well as mouse fibroblast and macrophage cell lines, utilizing contactless dielectrophoresis (cDEP). cDEP is a relatively new cell manipulation technique that has addressed some of the challenges of conventional dielectrophoretic methods. To evaluate our microfluidic device performance, we computationally studied the effects of altering various geometrical parameters, such as the size and arrangement of insulating structures, on dielectrophoretic and drag forces. We found that the trapping voltage of MOSE cells increases as the cells progress from a nontumorigenic, benign cell to a tumorigenic, malignant phenotype. Additionally, all MOSE cells display unique behavior compared to fibroblasts and macrophages, representing normal and inflammatory cells found in the peritoneal fluid. Based on these findings, we predict that cDEP can be utilized for isolation of ovarian cancer cells from peritoneal fluid as an early cancer detection tool. V C 2012 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx

Micro-scale biological tools that have allowed probing of individual cells - from the genetic, to proteomic, to phenotypic level - have revealed important contributions of single cells to direct normal and diseased body processes. In analyzing single cells, sample heterogeneity between and within specific cell types drives the need for high-throughput and quantitative measurement of cellular parameters. In recent years, high-throughput single-cell analysis platforms have revealed rare genetic subpopulations in growing tumors, begun to uncover the mechanisms of antibiotic resistance in bacteria, and described the cell-to-cell variations in stem cell differentiation and immune cell response to activation by pathogens. This review surveys these recent technologies, presenting their strengths and contributions to the field, and identifies needs still unmet toward the development of high-throughput single-cell analysis tools to benefit life science research and clinical diagnostics.

In this issue we highlight point-of-care (POC) diagnostic technologies to analyze cells, proteins, and small molecules from blood and other body fluids.Key challenges that are important to address in a POC device, such as operating on a small sample size, performing complex sample preparation, and achieving a simple readout are addressed by the highlighted works in unique ways. New trends in POC analysis include the use of off-the-shelf consumer electronics 1 (e.g. smart phones, google glasses, tablets, and scanners) for simplified readouts, paper based substrates to control fluid flow, 2,3 and all electronic readouts. Additionally, researchers are now addressing clinical needs to analyze body fluids beyond bloodincluding ocular fluids, which have extremely limited sample sizes and are well suited to microscale approaches. The convergence of consumer technology, the networked world, and big data health informatics systems are expected to lead to continued fruitful endeavors in POC diagnostic development.

Laboratory-based RT-PCR, the current gold standard for COVID-19 testing, can require a turnaround time of 24 to 48 h from sample collection to result. The delayed time to result limits the effectiveness of centralized RT-PCR testing to reduce transmission and stem potential outbreaks.