Optical capture and isolation of circulating tumor cells in a micro-fluidic device utilizing size selective trapping with optical cogwheel tweezers

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016299045-A1
Application number	US-201514746547-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jun 22, 2015
Priority date	Apr 9, 2015
Publication date	Oct 13, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

Embodiments generally relate to devices, systems and methods for separating CTCs from blood cells using optical trapping, such as use of optical cogwheel tweezers. Through a pre-filtration process, using optical cogwheel tweezers, desired cells from a cell sample can be filtered from a relatively dilute sample. The filtered sample can then be analyzed by more precise means to determine overall concentrations from the original sample while maintaining cell viability.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A method of cell sorting, comprising:
forming one or more optical cogwheel tweezers at a first position, the optical cogwheel tweezers having an aperture; size-selectively filtering a biological sample, the filtering comprising:
delivering a biological sample through the optical cogwheel tweezers at the first position, the biological sample comprising a cell sample, the optical cogwheel tweezers trapping a first portion of the cell sample from the biological sample and creating a first effluent, the first effluent being the remainder of the biological sample after removing the first portion of the cell sample;
directing the first effluent to an exhaust channel and the first portion of the cell sample to a sample channel, the exhaust channel connecting to an exhaust tank;
directing coherent radiant energy at a point along the sample channel, the first portion of the cell sample providing fluorescence data in response to the coherent radiant energy;
separating the first portion of the cell sample into a secondary cell sample and a second effluent using the fluorescence data;
delivering the secondary cell sample to a holding tank; and
delivering the second effluent to the exhaust tank; and
repeating the size-selective filtering one or more times using the first effluent and the second effluent collected in exhaust tank.

2 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising detecting circulating tumor cells (CTCs), hemocytes and lymphocytes.

3 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the size selective filtering is repeated until the biological sample is clear of CTCs.

4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the cell sample in the biological sample is tagged with a fluorophore.

5 . The method of claim 4 , wherein the fluorophore is conjugated to be selective for actively dividing cells.

6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the aperture created by the optical cogwheel tweezers is between about 10 um and about 30 um wide.

7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the biological sample is delivered at approximate in vivo rates.

8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein directing the first effluent to the exhaust channel and the first portion of the cell sample to the sample channel comprises:
detecting a first portion of a cell sample at a first trap position; and forming a first electric field and a second electric field in response to detecting a first portion, the first electric field positioned proximate an entrance to the exhaust channel and the second electric field positioned proximate an entrance to a sample channel, the second electric field being stronger than the first electric field.

9 . The method of claim 8 , wherein the first electric field is stronger than the second electric field in the presence of first effluent.

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Henspeter Justin E

Classifications

• G21K1/30 Primary

  for confining neutral particles or handling confined neutral particles, e.g. atom traps · CPC title

• G01N2001/4088

  filtration · CPC title

• G01N21/6486

  Measuring fluorescence of biological material, e.g. DNA, RNA, cells (G01N21/6428 takes precedence) · CPC title

• G01N1/4077 Primary

  by other techniques involving separation of suspended solids · CPC title

• G01N33/4833 Primary

  of solid biological material, e.g. tissue samples, cell cultures (tissue in vivo A61B5/00; cell suspensions G01N33/48735) · CPC title