Microfluidic Sorting Device Developed by Harvard Researchers (IMAGE)

Harvard University

Microfluidic Sorting Device Developed by Harvard Researchers

Caption

The microfluidic sorting device removes inactive and unwanted compounds, dumping the drops into a "bad egg" bin, and guides the others into a "keep" container. Specifically, as the drops flow through the channels they eventually encounter a junction (a two-channel fork). The device identifies the desired drops by using a laser focused on the channel before the fork to read a drop's fluorescence level. The drops with greater intensity of fluorescence (those exhibiting the highest levels of activity) are pulled towards the keep channel by the application of an electrical force, a process known as dielectrophoresis.

Credit

Courtesy of Jeremy Agresti, Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

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