Ranjan S., Yong Z.
National University of Singapore, SG
Keywords: circulating tumor cells, micro fluidics, microstructures
Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are metastatic cells that are detached from a tumor and are found in the blood of cancer patients. The presence of CTCs in the blood indicates the metastatic stage of cancer, so the detection of CTCs has been considered as a diagnosis and prognosis marker.The number of CTCs in blood has been found to be related with survival-rate. Though some efforts have been made to isolate CTCs from blood, it is still challenging due to the rarity of CTCs in blood (approximately one in one billion of blood cells). Apart from some fundamental problems, like non-retrieval of cells from antibody-coated surface, fixed-size of traps etc., the main problem with these methods is the long processing time. Here, we demonstrate a novel and efficient micro-device for capturing and retrieval of CTCs at high throughput. We have fabricated a unique membrane filter with an array of pores where each pore is surrounded by four dome-shaped micro-structures. The membrane and its use for CTCs capture are new and useful. These micro-structures help in negating the pressure-drop and prevent cell-clogging. The membrane has been fabricated and has been used for capture of cancer cells with high efficiency
Journal: TechConnect Briefs
Volume: 2, Nanotechnology 2012: Electronics, Devices, Fabrication, MEMS, Fluidics and Computational (Volume 2)
Published: June 18, 2012
Pages: 396 - 399
Industry sectors: Advanced Materials & Manufacturing | Sensors, MEMS, Electronics
Topic: Micro & Bio Fluidics, Lab-on-Chip
ISBN: 978-1-4665-6275-2