Discipline: Biological Sciences
Subcategory: Biomedical Engineering
Ibeawuchi Anokam - Howard University
Co-Author(s): Jelani Buie, Howard University, Washington, DC; Amber Childs-Santos, Howard University, Washington, DC
90% of cancer related deaths occur from secondary cancer. When a patient develops a malignant Tumor some particles called circulating tumor cells (CTCs) can sometimes break away from this primary cancer site cycling through the blood infecting other organs via metasis. Today’s standards of screening for this cancer are invasive, costly, and cannot be administered on a frequent basis. Given CTCs exist in the peripheral blood a blood test is all that is needed for screening. To decrease the mortality rate, we will employ a Lab-on-chip microfluidic device which is intended to be able to do noninvasive screening at a frequent level.
This research journal examines the topic of microfluidics and the dielectrophoretic 3D focusing and separation of microscale particles within an induced electric field generated in a microchannel. The microchannel consists of a finite array of electrodes on both sides of the width of the rectangular channel during 3D focusing and on either side during separation. The examination of this topic is chronicled by the presentation of a predictive dynamic mathematical model for determining the trajectory of microscale particles contained in a fluidic medium in the microchannel. The predictive dynamic mathematical model?s calculations are expressed with MATLAB. With this information, the most optimal trajectories can be deduced. The volumetric flow rate, the microparticles radius, and the number of electrodes, its width, and actuation voltage are variable in this examination. It is the hope that this will provide further background into the separation of CTCs from blood cells for screening.
Funder Acknowledgement(s): The Howard University Global Education and Awareness Research Undergraduate Program (GEAR-UP)
Faculty Advisor: Stacie LeSure, stacie.lesure@howard.edu
Role: I ran MATLAB simulations of the microchannel design and specifications to gain further background on the effects dielectrophoresis posed to cells in the channel.