We proposed a simple and low cost dielectrophoretic device to trap and isolate single target cells. The device consisted of a metal coated chemically etched fiber and an AC signal generator. It did not require microfabrication technologies or sophisticated electronics. Using this system, we could easily trap and isolate yeast cells at will. Furthermore, our dielectrophoretic manipulator also could discriminate between live and dead cells by tuning of the applied signal frequency. From these experimental investigations, it was found that our proposed dielectrophoresis tweezers using metal coated chemically etched fiber was a promising tool for the single cell manipulation and isolation.

Dielectrophoresis (DEP) force will arise when an inhomogeneous AC electric field with sinusoidal wave form is applied to micro electrodes. The DEP is able to distinguish between viable and non-viable biological cells by their movement through a non-uniform electric field. The viable cells can be used for analytic chemistry, cell culture or fusion. The aim of this research is yeast cell culture after distinction of viable and nonviable cells on Au thin-film DEP chip. We fabricated a planar double pole electrode for DEP using Au thin-film and a box cutter. This fabrication method is low cost and simpler than the previous existing methods. We observed cell culture under the terms of DEP (1Vpp-5MHz) after distinction between viable and non-viable yeast cells. The Au thin-film DEP chip could obtain viable cells which were trapped at the micro electrodes. The daughter cell became as big as the mature cells after about 50 minutes of observation. In other experiments, we confirmed whether the Au thin-film DEP chip can trap yeast protoplasts or not. When we applied 4Vpp and over 40kHz, the yeast protoplasts were trapped at the micro electrode. This experimental result is very important for performing fusion of cells. We confirmed usefulness and possibility of Au thin-film DEP chip through these experiments.

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