Dielectrophoretic separation of Circulating Tumor Cells and Red Blood Cells in a microfluidic device

Over the years several methods were used to separate cells within a microfluidic device such as cavities, with vortex microfluidics method, or cell trapping mechanisms using size filters. However, one of the methods that is widely used to separate cancer cells from blood cells is the dielectrophoresis. In this work we employ the numerical code COMSOL Multiphysics for a dielectrophoretic separation of CTCs (circulating tumor cells) from RBCs (red blood cells) in a 3D microchannel. The microfluidic device is composed of one inlet and three outlets. The non-uniform alternative electric field is generated using interdigitated electrodes and it separates the cells within the device to the corresponding outlet. The electric field frequency was set to 100kHz. For this paper, one single CTC line is selected MDA-MB-231, breast cancer cells. The CTCs and the RBCs are considered in an ideal way in the simulation as spheres, but with the afferent characteristics. This work can be extended to testing multiple CTC lines at various flow velocities and electric field frequencies.