Microfluidic MEMS Hand-Held Flow Cytometer

Due to a number of recent technological advances, a hand-held flow cytometer can be achieved by use of semiconductor illuminators, optical sensors (all battery powered) and sensitive cell markers such as immuno-quantum dot (Qdot) labels. The specific application described is of a handheld blood analyzer that can quickly process a drop of whole, unfractionated human peripheral blood by real-time, on-chip magnetic separation of white blood cells (WBCs) and red blood cells (RBCs) and further fluorescence analysis of Qdot labeled WBC subsets. Various microfluidic patterns were fabricated in PDMS and used to characterize flow of single cells and magnetic deflection of magnetically labeled cells. An LED excitation, avalanche photodiode detection system (SensL Technologies, Ltd., Cork, Ireland) was used for immuno-Qdot detection of WBC subsets. A static optical setup was used to determine the sensitivity of the detection system. In this work we demonstrate: valve-less, on-chip magnetic sorting of immunomagnetically labeled white blood cells, bright Qdot labeling of lymphocytes, and counting of labeled white blood cells. Comparisons of these results with conventional flow cytometric analyses are reported. Sample preparation efficiency was determined by labeling of isolated white blood cells. Appropriate flow rates were determined for optical detection and confirmed with flowing particles. Several enabling technologies required for a truly portable, battery powered, hand-held flow cytometer for use in future point-of-care diagnostic devices have been demonstrated. The combining of these technologies into an integrated handheld instrument is in progress and results on whole blood cell analysis are to be reported in another paper.