Translate this page to:
In JoVE (1)
Other Publications (1)
Articles by Nicholas N. Watkins in JoVE
Separating Beads and Cells in Multi-channel Microfluidic Devices Using Dielectrophoresis and Laminar Flow
Larry J. Millet1,2, Kidong Park1,2, Nicholas N. Watkins1,2, K. Jimmy Hsia2,3, Rashid Bashir1,2,4
1Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2Micro and Nanotechnology Lab, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 3Mechanical Science and Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 4Bioengineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Dielectrophoresis (DEP) is an effective method to manipulate cells. Printed circuit boards (PCB) can provide inexpensive, reusable and effective electrodes for contact-free cell manipulation within microfluidic devices. By combining PDMS-based microfluidic channels with coverslips on PCBs, we demonstrate bead and cell manipulation and separation within multichannel microfluidic devices.
Other articles by Nicholas N. Watkins on PubMed
A Microfabricated Electrical Differential Counter for the Selective Enumeration of CD4+ T Lymphocytes
Lab on a Chip. Apr, 2011 | Pubmed ID: 21283908
We have developed a microfabricated biochip that enumerates CD4+ T lymphocytes from leukocyte populations obtained from human blood samples using electrical impedance sensing and immunoaffinity chromatography. T cell counts are found by obtaining the difference between the number of leukocytes before and after depleting CD4+ T cells with immobilized antibodies in a capture chamber. This differential counting technique has been validated to analyze physiological concentrations of leukocytes with an accuracy of ∼9 cells per µL by passivating the capture chamber with bovine serum albumin. In addition, the counter provided T cell counts which correlated closely with an optical control (R(2) = 0.997) for CD4 cell concentrations ranging from approximately 100 to 700 cells per µL. We believe that this approach can be a promising method for bringing quantitative HIV/AIDS diagnostics to resource-poor regions in the world.
