Three Dimensional Micro-Fluidics

The Phase I project demonstrated utilizing moving optical gradient forces, Optophoresis?, to provide selective and sensitive analysis/sorting of biological, cellular and environmental samples in 2D- and 3D-microfluidic devices. A new analysis method,Optophoretic Time of Flight (O.T.O.F.) providing quantitative cell analysis was implemented. The Phase II goals are to refine and optimize O.T.O.F. and couple it with an optical switch to enable sorting and collection of cells for commercial applicationsranging from tissue engineering to cancer diagnostics to pathogen isolation. The major goal will be increasing throughput to ~1000 cells/second while simultaneously reducing laser power requirements. Substantial effort will be expended on increasingoptical efficiency, creating a focused sample stream, and multiplexing for parallel analysis. Optical switch development will focus on transverse versus axial forces for sorting and 2D- versus 3D-microfluidic geometries. Subcontractor CFDRC will providemodeling for optimization of cell fluidic transport and optical interactions. Both O.T.O.F. and optical switching can exist and will be developed as standalone techniques. O.T.O.F. alone is a useful diagnostic tool where recovery of cells is not needed.Optical switching is also useful with scatter or fluorescence analysis. The Phase II instrument will integrate O.T.O.F. and optical switching to offer maximum flexibility and utility.