Thesis
Separation of circulating tumor cells using deformation-based microfluidic devices: design and optimization
Washington State University
Master of Science (MS), Washington State University
05/2019
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/102409
Abstract
Circulating Tumor Cells (CTCs) are potential indicators of cancer. Detection of CTCs is important for diagnosing cancer at an early stage and predicting the effectiveness of cancer treatment. Recent progress in the development of microfluidic chips has inaugurated a new possibility for designing diagnostic devices for early cancer detection. Among various devices, deformation-based CTC microchips have shown a strong promise for CTC detection due to its simplicity and low cost. This type of devices involves a process where CTCs are trapped while allowing more deformable blood cells to squeeze through the filtration geometry at the specified operating pressure. Fundamental understanding of CTC passing event through a micro-filtering channel seems to be a promising direction in studying these microdevicessince it helps optimize the microfilter design for achieving high isolation purity and capture efficiency. Along with the experimental studies, numerical simulation emerges as a powerful tool to predict the behavior of a cell inside a microfilter, and may deliver important insights to optimize the processes by saving time and cost. First, the CTC squeezing process through a microfluidic filtering channel is studied by modeling the CTC as a simple liquid droplet. Cell modeling employed both Newtonian and non-Newtonian approaches to simplify the model and investigating different biophysical properties. Detailed microscopic multiphase flow characteristics regarding the filtering process are discussed including the pressure signatures, flow details, and cell deformation. Next, we employed a compound droplet model consisting of an outer cell membrane, cytoplasm and the nucleus to study the flow dynamics more realistically. The effects of different parameters such as the nuclear to cytoplasmic size ratio (N/C), operating flow rate and viscosity of the cell has been investigated. We studied critical pressure for the CTC at different flow rates as it plays a crucial role in the device operation in ensuring a successful passing event. Our study provides an insight into the cell squeezing process and its characteristics, which can guide in the design and optimization of next-generation deformation-based CTC microfilters.
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Details
- Title
- Separation of circulating tumor cells using deformation-based microfluidic devices
- Creators
- Mohammad Abul Hashem
- Contributors
- Xiaolin Chen (Co-Chair)Hua Tan (Co-Chair) - Washington State University, Engineering and Computer Science (VANC), School ofHamid Rad (Committee Member) - Washington State University, Engineering and Computer Science (VANC), School of
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, School of
- Theses and Dissertations
- Master of Science (MS), Washington State University
- Publisher
- Washington State University; [Pullman, Washington] :
- Number of pages
- 88
- Identifiers
- 99900525132201842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Thesis