Characterizing Stem Cell State at High Throughput

As PSCs differentiate in vitro into a mixture of different lineages, purification of the differentiated cells, as well as separation from their tumor-forming progenitors, is essential for applications to regenerative medicine. Unfortunately, conventional separation techniques for stem cells such as microscope-assisted manual isolation, fluorescence-activated cell sorting and magnetic-activated cell sorting require exogenous labeling or genetic modification, neither of which is ideal for such clinical applications. Therefore, Biopico System teams with the University of California, Irvine for their expertise in microfluidic sorting, the Children"s Hospital of Orange County (CHOC) Research Institute for their expertise in iPSC culture, and Arizona State University for their expertise in multielectrode array recording from single cells. We will develop an"On-the-Fly Field-potential Sensing Electrode Track"microdevice for label-free cell sorting of induced pluripotent stem cells and their differentiated progeny based on their response to electrical stimulation. In order to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed platform in a six month effort, we will combine the technologies of flow based field potential sensing in electrodes array, high speed signal processing and high throughput microfluidic cell sorting to rapidly detect, identify, and sort millions of specific cells for the successful translation of stem cell biology into clinical therapy.