Rational Microfluidic Design for Dielectrophoresis-based Multitarget separation of blood cells and CTCs

A rapid, sensitive, and low-damage method for isolating circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in peripheral blood is urgently required to advance cancer research. For disease detection, it is often necessary to simultaneously isolate multiple cells to effectively monitor and observe the behavior of CTCs and blood cells such as platelets (PLTs), red blood cells (RBCs), and white blood cells (WBCs) affected by cancer. In this study, we evaluated and compared the multitarget separation of cells within microfluidic chip devices based on the principle of dielectrophoresis using finite element modeling. We investigated the effects of electrode shape, dielectric conductivity, fluid flow rate, and other factors on the movement and separation of multiple cells in the microchannels. Our findings indicated that the most effective separation results were achieved when the chip electrode angle was set to 90°, the applied voltage was 1.5 V, and the inlet flow rate ratio was 1:3. The simulation results will also be analyzed to explore ways to optimize the microfluidic chip design, improve separation efficiency, and enhance purity. Therefore, the method used in our study provides researchers with an effective approach to optimize and fabricate DEP-based microfluidic devices for multitarget cell separation.