The research objective of this award is to design, fabricate, and test flow-through microfluidic devices that will enable the selection and separation of biological cells based on their physiological properties using augmented surface acoustic wave technology. The approach will be to utilize surface acoustic wave energy as an initial separation and alignment tool and then enhance separation and selectivity through secondary and tertiary separation technologies downstream. Transverse waves as well as electrophoresis and chemical gradients will be utilized to enhance selectivity and separation of cells. The separation technologies will initially be studied using manufactured particles with different surface-chemical and physical properties as models for biological cells. These initial studies will feed data for modeling and iterating the design of microfluidic channels and surface acoustic wave devices for subsequent work with living biological cells . Studies with cells will proceed with pure cultures of cells and continue with co-cultures of cells in mixed microbial communities.
Separation of biological cells from complex mixtures is important for emergent biotechnology, human health research and national security. Currently, techniques for the selection and isolation of microbes requires ad hoc knowledge about proteins on the cells or rely on random isolation and the hopes that the desired cell has become entrapped in a micro-well or isolated by serial dilution. If successful, this body of research can transform the paradigm for separation of biological cells into one in which future researchers may sort cells based on the physiology of the desired cell rather than luck. This work will result in an understandings about how cell physiology is related to motion in surface acoustic wave energy, about the impact of water quality parameters on cellular motion in surface acoustic wave energy, and which physiological properties of biological cells are best exploited for specific separation of individuals from the mixed communities of cells. This body of work enhances the education and training pipeline that prepares the future leaders in engineering and science.
