Analysis of the Leishmania mexicana promastigote cell cycle using imaging flow cytometry provides new insights into cell cycle flexibility and events of short duration.

Promastigote Leishmania mexicana have a complex cell division cycle characterised by the ordered replication of several single-copy organelles, a prolonged S phase and rapid G2 and cytokinesis phases, accompanied by cell cycle stage-associated morphological changes. Here we exploit these morphological changes to develop a high-throughput and semi-automated imaging flow cytometry (IFC) pipeline to analyse the cell cycle in live L. mexicana.

A plug-and-play, easy-to-manufacture fluidic accessory to significantly enhance the sensitivity of electrochemical immunoassays.

Earlier access to patients' biomarker status could transform disease management. However, gold-standard techniques such as enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs) are typically not deployed at the point-of-care due to their cumbersome instrumentation and complexity. Electrochemical immunosensors can be disruptive in this sector with their small size and lower cost but, without further modifications, the performance of these sensors in complex media (e.

Interaction between the Accumulation of Cadmium and Deoxynivalenol Mycotoxin Produced by in Durum Wheat Grains.

Durum wheat is one of the cereal crops that accumulates the highest concentrations of cadmium (Cd) and deoxynivalenol (DON) mycotoxin in its grains, thereby affecting the safety of products made of durum wheat grains (pasta and semolina). This study investigates the interaction between Cd and , the main causal agent of DON accumulation in grains. A pot experiment was designed to characterize the response of durum wheat to infection at three levels of Cd exposure: 0.

Limitation of spiral microchannels for particle separation in heterogeneous mixtures: Impact of particles' size and deformability.

Spiral microchannels have shown promising results for separation applications. Hydrodynamic particle-particle interactions are a known factor strongly influencing focusing behaviors in inertial devices, with recent work highlighting how the performance of bidisperse mixtures is altered when compared with pure components in square channels. This phenomenon has not been previously investigated in detail for spiral channels.

High-speed particle detection and tracking in microfluidic devices using event-based sensing.

Visualising fluids and particles within channels is a key element of microfluidic work. Current imaging methods for particle image velocimetry often require expensive high-speed cameras with powerful illuminating sources, thus potentially limiting accessibility. This study explores for the first time the potential of an event-based camera for particle and fluid behaviour characterisation in a microfluidic system.

Correction: Deformability-induced lift force in spiral microchannels for cell separation.

Correction for 'Deformability-induced lift force in spiral microchannels for cell separation' by Ewa Guzniczak et al., Lab Chip, 2020, 20, 614-625.

Purifying stem cell-derived red blood cells: a high-throughput label-free downstream processing strategy based on microfluidic spiral inertial separation and membrane filtration.

Cell-based therapeutics, such as in vitro manufactured red blood cells (mRBCs), are different to traditional biopharmaceutical products (the final product being the cells themselves as opposed to biological molecules such as proteins) and that presents a challenge of developing new robust and economically feasible manufacturing processes, especially for sample purification. Current purification technologies have limited throughput, rely on expensive fluorescent or magnetic immunolabeling with a significant (up to 70%) cell loss and quality impairment. To address this challenge, previously characterized mechanical properties of umbilical cord blood CD34+ cells undergoing in vitro erythropoiesis were used to develop an mRBC purification strategy.

Demonstrating the Use of Optical Fibres in Biomedical Sensing: A Collaborative Approach for Engagement and Education.

This paper demonstrates how research at the intersection of physics, engineering, biology and medicine can be presented in an interactive and educational way to a non-scientific audience. Interdisciplinary research with a focus on prevalent diseases provides a relatable context that can be used to engage with the public. Respiratory diseases are significant contributors to avoidable morbidity and mortality and have a growing social and economic impact.

Deformability-induced lift force in spiral microchannels for cell separation.

Cell sorting and isolation from a heterogeneous mixture is a crucial task in many aspects of cell biology, biotechnology and medicine. Recently, there has been an interest in methods allowing cell separation upon their intrinsic properties such as cell size and deformability, without the need for use of biochemical labels. Inertial focusing in spiral microchannels has been recognised as an attractive approach for high-throughput cell sorting for myriad point of care and clinical diagnostics.

Impact of poloxamer 188 (Pluronic F-68) additive on cell mechanical properties, quantification by real-time deformability cytometry.

Advances in cellular therapies have led to the development of new approaches for cell product purification and formulation, e.g., utilizing cell endogenous properties such as size and deformability as a basis for separation from potentially harmful undesirable by-products.

High-throughput assessment of mechanical properties of stem cell derived red blood cells, toward cellular downstream processing.

Stem cell products, including manufactured red blood cells, require efficient sorting and purification methods to remove components potentially harmful for clinical application. However, standard approaches for cellular downstream processing rely on the use of specific and expensive labels (e.g.

Angry pathogens, how to get rid of them: introducing microfluidics for waterborne pathogen separation to children.

The purpose of this paper is to present a new approach for introducing to a non-scientific audience a major public health issue: access to safe drinking water. Access to safe drinking water is a privilege in developed countries and an urgent need in the third world, which implies always more efficient and reliable engineering tools to be developed. As a major global challenge it is important to make children aware of this problem for understanding (i) what safe drinking water is, (ii) how ingenious techniques are developed for this purpose and (iii) the role of microfluidics in this area.

Oxygen mass transfer and hydrodynamic behaviour in wastewater: determination of local impact of surfactants by visualization techniques.

Powerful techniques, based on the Planar Laser Induced Fluorescence (PLIF) technique, are deployed to locally visualize and quantify the impact of surfactants in wastewaters on hydrodynamics and oxygen mass transfer. Bubble diameter, aspect ratio, rise velocity, contamination angle, as well as flux, flux density, liquid side mass transfer and diffusion coefficients of transferred oxygen are determined based on these techniques applied in the wake of rising bubbles of diameter 1 mm and through planar gas/liquid interfaces. The initial experiments were performed in demineralized water containing small amounts of surfactant.