Real-time impedance-activated dielectrophoretic actuation for reconfigurable manipulation of single flowing particles.

This work presents an innovative all-electrical platform for selective single-particle manipulation. The platform combines microfluidic impedance cytometry for label-free particle characterization and dielectrophoresis for contactless multi-way particle separation. The microfluidic chip has a straightforward coplanar electrode layout and no particle pre-focusing mechanism is required.

Automatic trajectory control of single cells using dielectrophoresis based on visual feedback.

This paper deals with the automatic control of the trajectory of T-lymphocytes using dielectrophoretic (DEP) actuation. Dielectrophoresis is a physical phenomenon induced by a non-uniform electric field enabling application of a force on a dielectric object. In most of the cases, it is used in a passive way.

Microfluidic device combining hydrodynamic and dielectrophoretic trapping for the controlled contact between single micro-sized objects and application to adhesion assays.

The understanding of cell-cell and cell-matrix interactions receptor and ligand binding relies on our ability to study the very first events of their contact. Of particular interest is the interaction between a T cell receptor and its cognate peptide-major histocompatibility complex. Indeed, analyzing their binding kinetics and cellular avidity in large-scale low-cost and fast cell sorting would largely facilitate the access to cell-based cancer immunotherapies.

Controlled transitions between metastable states of 2D magnetocapillary crystals.

Magnetocapillary interactions between particles allow to self-assemble floating crystals along liquid interfaces. For a fixed number of particles, different states possessing different symmetrical features, known as metastable states, coexist. In this paper, we demonstrate how to trigger the transition from one state to another, either by rearranging the crystal, or by controlling its growth.

Dielectrophoretic Traps for Efficient Bead and Cell Trapping and Formation of Aggregates of Controlled Size and Composition.

We present a microfluidic dielectrophoretic-actuated system designed to trap chosen single-cell and form controlled cell aggregates. A novel method is proposed to characterize the efficiency of the dielectrophoretic trapping, considering the flow speed but also the heat generated by the traps as limiting criteria in cell-safe manipulation. Two original designs with different manufacturing processes are experimentally compared.