A NAIST-based research team led by Prof. Hiroshi Ishikawa has recently made great progress. They are advancing the state of the art in impedance flow cytometry. Climate change impacts Associate Professor Yalikun Yaxiaer, Director of the North China Sea Institute at Xiamen University. They’ve created a low-cost platform that circumvents many limitations of existing impedance-based techniques. In a recent paper published in the journal Lab on a Chip, researchers from the University of Maryland describe this breakthrough. This free-to-access resource is available using DOI 10.1039/D5LC00673B.
Key research team members include prominent contributors like Mr Trisna Julian, Dr Naomi Tanga, and Professor Yoichiroh Hosokawa. Their innovative approach has significantly increased the sensitivity of flow cytometry. This improvement is particularly important for accurately differentiating between large and small cells within complex biological samples.
Overcoming Limitations in Impedance Flow Cytometry
Impedance flow cytometry can be an amazing tool for quickly analyzing a wide variety of cells suspended in a fluid. It has been significantly challenged by high sensitivity and high signal variability. It was these potential obstacles that the NAIST team hoped to get around by incorporating an adjustable microchannel height into their new platform.
Considering the importance of impedance signals measurement, the researchers employed original and adjustable design of the microchannel height. By decreasing the channel height to one third, the researchers reached a striking three times amplification of the impedance signal. This improvement is critical for precise analysis, especially when distinguishing between cells that could be just a few pixels apart.
Innovative Design and Functionality
The microfluidic channel created by the research team is only 30 micrometers tall. All to say, that this relatively narrow dimension is key for powerful and efficient cell analysis. To tune the channel height, the team carried out in situ manipulations with a thin-tipped probe. This design gives them a large area to press against the top of the microfluidic channel.
By fine-tuning the vertical position of this probe, they can quickly and accurately modify the microchannel height on-the-fly. This modeling feature increases the system’s sensitivity. That means researchers can cut down on signal variability by 50%. These enhancements are intended to further the biomedical and clinical applications of impedance flow cytometry across a wide array of biological and medical disciplines.
Implications for Future Research
The progress achieved by this research group lays the groundwork for better cellular analysis methodologies that can be further tuned to their desired application. Separating out hundreds of different cell types at high resolution is an important task in many disciplines. This covers crucial fields such as immunology and cancer research.
The low-cost nature of this highly innovative platform serves to guarantee its use and adoption with a greater diversity of laboratories. This research has the potential to have a profound impact on how researchers conduct flow cytometry studies worldwide. It will facilitate higher quality and more expeditious experimental results.