Electro-acoustic spinning for automated single-cell analysis in industry and medicine

Biophysical properties such as mechanical and electrical properties of biological objects can serve as label-free biomarkers to reveal their physiological state and functional activities. Most conventional methods are limited by the fact that they measure an average value for the biophysical properties of an ensemble of cells. Measuring the biophysical properties of single cells is critical in biomedicine and biotechnology. For example, early-stage cancer diagnosis is only possible with single-cell analysis. In addition, the economic role of microorganisms such as yeast, bacteria and algae in food and health technology makes their individual characterization essential. The most common methods for single cell identification and characterization have not reached clinical or industrial applications due to their complex operation and very low throughput. Flow cytometry is the most common technique used in the clinical setting for cell sorting. However, it is not very specific for characterizing the biophysical properties of objects, and classical flow cytometry requires samples to be labeled, which complicates the workflow and potentially causes artifacts. The goal of this project is to develop electroacoustic spinning as a novel technique to simultaneously characterize electrical and mechanical properties of single cells with sufficient throughput, label-free, and low-cost to be industrially relevant. We will measure the electrical and mechanical properties of a large number of cells simultaneously by monitoring the rotation of the cells in an electroacoustic field between two parallel electrodes. The homogeneous electroacoustic field affects the cells equally everywhere, which allows us to evaluate the properties of many cells simultaneously.