This phase II proposal embodies an ambitious and challenging plan for the development of revolutionary and highly selective and efficient cell separation systems. Targeted separation systems will offer desirable and needed improvements and open new opportunities in diagnostics and medical applications, such as fetal cell analysis from maternal blood, and early cancer detection. The specific objectives of this work are to develop the ferrofluids or magnetic capture particles, to have optimal properties for cell selection, colloidal stability, and magnetic susceptibility, while having all other properties which are compatible with the intended system. In addition, the magnetic separation devices will be designed and optimized for flow, collection efficiency and efficient recovery and concentration of cells. Thirdly, an objective of this plan is to develop the schemes and procedures to isolate and concentrate cells, specifically the rare cells which are of vital interest to the medical community and in which few technologies have traversed. Based upon our extensive experience in and knowledge of ferrofluids and separation technology as well as the specific pioneering work as detailed in our Phase I report, we propose a highly sophisticated technology to the medical community with potential low cost, which can offer many needed advantages. In addition, our system has great potential in opening new doors in medicine, as separation and selection technology has wide application.
