Texas Tech University System

Wei Li

Siva A Vanapalli

Dhananjay Kumar Singh

Shakil Ahmad Shimul

Caroline C Ahrens

Ziye Dong

A fluidic valve system comprises a housing, a shell mounted to the housing, a vent for allowing fluid to enter the housing in a high pressure zone, at least one Dielectric Elastomer Actuator (DEA) flap forming a seal with the shell, wherein applying a voltage to the DEA flap causes the DEA flap to open the seal with the shell so that fluid can exit through a low pressure zone created between the shell and the DEA flap, and a power supply for supplying the voltage to the DEA flap.

Electroactive polymer valve

Hollow glass microspheres (HGMS) with a controlled nanotopographical surface structure (HGMS) demonstrate improved isolation and recovery of cell from biological fluid.HGMS can be achieved by applying layer-by-layer (LbL) assembly of negatively charged SiO2 nanoparticles and positively charged poly-L-arginine molecules. Then, a sheathing can be applied to the surface with an enzymatically degradable LbL film made from biotinylated alginate and poly-L-arginine. Further, a cap of anti-EpCAM antibodies and anti-fouling PEG molecules can be applied to the sheathed film covering the microspheres. Compared to smooth-surfaced HGMS, NSHGMS reveals shorter isolation times, enhanced capture efficiency and lower detection limit in, for example, commonly used cancer cell lines. AnHGMS-based cell isolation method does not require specialized lab equipment or an external power source, and thus, can be used for separation of targeted cells from blood or other body fluid in a resource-limited environment.

Rapid cell isolation and recovery using hollow glass microspheres coated with biodegradable nanostructured films

The present invention includes method and device for label-free holographic screening and enumeration of tumor cells in bulk flow comprising: a laser source, a micro-objective, a pinhole device and a collimating lens, a mirror, a sample chamber with a sample flow inlet on a first side of the sample chamber and a sample flow outlet connected by a microchannel, and a detector, wherein the collimated laser beam passes through microchannel and interacts with cells in the sample to generate a respective hologram at the detector, wherein a processor calculates a numerical reconstruction from the respective hologram and generates a focused image of the numerous cells using the numerical reconstruction, wherein the numerous cells are enumerated by looking at a size, a maximum intensity and a mean intensity of the focused image.

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Lubbock, TX, United States of America

Wei Li