Label-Free Separation of Living Bacteria and Eukaryotic Cells by a Novel Microfluidic Dielectrophoresis Integrated Chip System

Microfluidic dielectrophoresis (DEP) technology has been applied to many devices to perform label-free target cell separation. Cells separated by these devices are used in laboratories, mainly for medical research. The present study designed a microfluidic DEP device to fabricate a rapid and semiautomated cell separation system in conjunction with microscopy to enumerate the separated cells. With this device, we efficiently segregated bacterial cells from liquid products and enriched one cell type from two mixed eukaryotic cell types. The device eliminated sample pretreatment andestablished cell separation by all-in-one operation in a lab-on-chip, requiring only a small sample volume (0.5–1 mL) to enumerate the target cells and completing the entire separation process within thirty minutes. Such a rapid cell separation technique is in high demand by many researchers to promptly characterize the target cells.