Cancer is amongst the leading causes of mortality worldwide. Separation of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) has been under the spotlight in many studies due to its critical role played in cancer’s diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment. Microfuidic channels have been instrumental in the separation of target analytes like CTCs, components of blood, etc., in many biochemical diagnostic processes. Electrokinetic-based cell separation of biological entities like blood components and CTCs is one of the significant research areas in the past decade. In the current work, dielectrophoresis (DEP) microfluidic devices using sawtooth electrodes under low voltage of about 1 V has been proposed with the target of separating HT-29 CTCs from white blood cells. In a computational study, electric potential profile, velocity field profile within the microchannel, cell particle trajectories across the channel, and the DEP force imposed upon the cells were analyzed using the finite element method simulation. The effect of changing the velocity of cells and changing the height of electrodes on the separation efficacy was analyzed and the results were demonstrated.
Vafaie et al. (Mon,) studied this question.