Biochip: Cellular Analysis by Atomic Force Microscopy Using Dielectrophoretic Manipulation

Abstract

Non-uniform AC electric fields generated by interdigitated microelectrode arrays have been used to manipulate and control biological cells by dielectrophoresis. This technique is incorporated on an integrated Biochip platform designed as a non-destructive system for trapping and immobilising living cells into cavities. Using dielectrophoresis-based single particle traps, cells have been directed into cavities aligned between the interdigitated electrodes by both positive and negative dielectrophoresis. The motivation for development of the Biochip is to analyse the cell structure in response to various stimuli by atomic force microscopy.

Particle patterning using fluidics and electric fields

“…However, most DEP work uses frequencies > 100 kHz in order to avoid electrolytic effects at the electrodes. It has been used for the assembly and processing of micro-and nanoparticles [1] including biological cells [2][3][4][5], carbon nanotubes (CNT) [6][7][8], viruses [9][10][11] and biopolymers [12][13][14][15][16][17]. DEP has also been used to assemble (photo) conductive nanoparticles to form micro- [18][19][20][21] and nano- [22][23][24][25] wires.…”

Electrokinetic motion of particles and cells in microchannels

“…22), such as using grid electrode system (Suehiro and Pethig 1998;Fuchs et al 2006), electrode rings (Taff and Voldman 2005;Rosenthal and Voldman 2005), scattered square or circular electrodes Prasad et al 2004), point-lid geometry (Gray et al 2004), dipolar (Muys et al 2005;Beck et al 2008), and planar or extruded quadruple electrodes (Fuhr et al 1998;Voldman et al 2001Voldman et al , 2002Voldman et al , 2003Rosenthal et al 2006;Jaeger et al 2008). The biological samples handled range from mammalian cells (Fuhr et al 1998;Gray et al 2004;Prasad et al 2004;Muys et al 2005; to yeast ) and bacteria spores (Beck et al 2008). DEP trapping arrays can also be integrated with other techniques such as atomic force microscopy (Muys et al 2005), fluorescent microscopy (Voldman et al 2002), for sensing, cytometry, and other critical analysis.…”

“…The biological samples handled range from mammalian cells (Fuhr et al 1998;Gray et al 2004;Prasad et al 2004;Muys et al 2005; to yeast ) and bacteria spores (Beck et al 2008). DEP trapping arrays can also be integrated with other techniques such as atomic force microscopy (Muys et al 2005), fluorescent microscopy (Voldman et al 2002), for sensing, cytometry, and other critical analysis.…”

Cell isolation and growth in electric-field defined micro-wells

“…Further work is required to clarify if the enhancement applies to the whole population or only to a few cells. It is also possible that the combination of DEP trapping of cells with atomic force microscopy [18] can be used to image their growth processes, for example the budding of yeast cells.…”