The Effect of Different System Parameters on the Movement of Microbial Cells Using Light-Induced Dielectrophoresis.

The manipulation of single particles remains a topic of interest with many applications. Here we characterize the impact of selected parameters on the motion of single particles thanks to dielectrophoresis (DEP) induced by visible light, in a technique called Light-induced Dielectrophoresis, or LiDEP, also known as optoelectronic tweezers, optically induced DEP, and image-based DEP. Baker's yeast and Candida cells are exposed to an electric field gradient enabled by shining a photoconductive material with a specific pattern of visible light, and their response is measured in terms of the average cell velocity towards the gradient.

Human assay for irreversible electroporation cardiac ablation.

Pulsed electric field (PEF) cardiac ablation has been recently proposed as a technique to treat drug resistant atrial fibrillation by inducing cell death through irreversible electroporation (IRE). Improper PEF dosing can result in thermal damage or reversible electroporation. The lack of comprehensive and systematic studies to select PEF parameters for safe and effective IRE cardiac treatments hinders device development and regulatory decision-making.

Human cardiomyocytes are more susceptible to irreversible electroporation by pulsed electric field than human esophageal cells.

Pulse electric field-based (PEF) ablation is a technique whereby short high-intensity electric fields inducing irreversible electroporation (IRE) are applied to various tissues. Here, we implemented a standardized in vitro model to compare the effects of biphasic symmetrical pulses (100 pulses, 1-10 μs phase duration (d), 10-1000 Hz pulse repetition rate (f)) using two different human cellular models: human-induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (hiPSC-CMs) and human esophageal smooth muscle cells (hESMCs) cultured in monolayer format. We report the PEF-induced irreversibly electroporated cell monolayer areas and the corresponding electric field thresholds (EFTs) for both cardiac and esophageal cultures.

Highly Localized Enrichment of Parasites Using Dielectrophoresis.

Human African trypanosomiasis (HAT), also known as sleeping sickness, is a vector-borne neglected tropical disease endemic to rural sub-Saharan Africa. Current methods of early detection in the affected rural communities generally begin with general screening using the card agglutination test for trypanosomiasis (CATT), a serological test. However, the gold standard for confirmation of trypanosomiasis remains the direct observation of the causative parasite, .

Characterization of the Dielectrophoretic Response of Different Candida Strains Using 3D Carbon Microelectrodes.

Bloodstream infection with fungal cells remains one of the most life-threatening complications among hospitalized patients around the world. Although most of the cases are still due to , the rising incidence of infections caused by other strains that may not respond to traditional anti-fungal treatments merits the development of a method for species-specific isolation of . To this end, here we present the characterization of the dielectrophoresis (DEP) response of , and We complement such characterization with a study of the cells morphology.

Automated "pick and transfer" of targeted cells using dielectrophoresis.

Selective manipulation of single cells is an important step in sample preparation for biological analysis. A highly specific and automated device is desired for such an operation. An ideal device would be able to selectively pick several single cells in parallel from a heterogeneous population and transfer those to designated sites for further analysis without human intervention.