Cellular characterisation and separation: dielectrophoretically activated cell sorting (DACS)

The expanding field of AC Electrokinetics offers a number of opportunities for the separation and characterisation of cells. Here the authors consider two methods, Dielectrophoresis and Travelling Wave Dielectrophoresis. Dielectrophoresis is a non-invasive technique that has been used to probe the internal dielectric properties of single cells by inducing a motive force on that cell. By controlling the conditions so that the force exerted on particles of different types is significantly different, a mixture of different cell types can be sorted into groups. Travelling Wave Dielectrophoresis is better able to discriminate small changes in cell properties than conventional Dielectrophoresis. It is also used as a means of transporting cells around electrode arrays. Here the authors illustrate how these technologies and others can be integrated to form an on-chip cell sorter capable of performing Dielectrophoresis Activated Cell Sorting (DACS).