Microfluidic Particle Size Sorting

Use case

Biologically Active Cellular Monolayer with Stable Hemodynamic Forces

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Microfluidic endothelial cell culture

Transition seamlessly from traditional 2D cell culture to cutting-edge organ-on-chip technology

Dynamic perfusion conditions

Our microfluidic platform provides controlled shear stress with laminar flow, accurately replicating in vivo conditions essential for vascular research, drug toxicity studies, and disease mechanism exploration.

Improved in vitro model

Efficient perfusion replicates physiological conditions, with our system enabling quick substance injection and precise flow control, allowing fine-tuning of strain, shear stress, and pressure for realistic biomechanical environments.

Highlights

Advanced microfluidic endothelial cell culture: Achieving a functional endothelial cell layer in a microfluidic channel is now within reach. This use case includes everything you need to create an in vitro model that closely parallels the in vivo environment. Our plug-and-play system is designed to help you move beyond traditional static cultures and into the realm of organ-on-chip technologies.
Complete setup with expert support: Our system is built around the Elveflow OB1 flow controller and a specialized membrane biochip, ensuring accurate flow control and cell culture conditions. With our user-friendly setup and dedicated support, you can easily establish a high-quality endothelial cell culture with enhanced marker protein expression and robust cell adhesion.
Experience in organ-on-chip projects: Our team has extensive experience in organ-on-chip research, having contributed to numerous projects over the years. We’re eager to share our insights and collaborate on new ideas, ensuring your experiments are set up for success.
Microfluidic endothelial cell layer culture: This use case features a single pumping channel coupled with a distributor, enabling the seeding of different cell types on either side of a membrane within the chip. This configuration facilitates the creation of a more physiologically relevant endothelial cell layer, ideal for developing new therapies or conducting toxicity screenings.
Controlled perfusion for optimal results: Efficient perfusion is critical to replicating physiological conditions. Our system allows for the quick injection of substances, with precise flow control provided by our microfluidic flow sensors. You can fine-tune strain, shear stress, and pressure to create realistic biomechanical environments.

Setup

Our microfluidic particle size sorting use case leverages the OB1 flow controller (Elveflow) and advanced spiral or pillar sorting chips to deliver high-performance particle sorting. This all-in-one solution includes everything you need to establish a robust particle sorting system with high flow rates and excellent sorting efficiency.

Utilizing well-understood Dean and inertial forces, our particle separation technology is both label-free and membrane-free, making it ideal for applications such as sperm cell separation, red blood cell filtration, and other particle sorting tasks.

The microfluidic particle sorting use case comes with the OB1 microfluidic flow controller, which drives the sample through the microfluidic chip. This chip uses inertial forces to sort particles by size, with sorting efficiency directly linked to fluid properties and flow rate.

This comprehensive use case includes compatible instruments and is controlled by a single software interface, enabling quick setup and adaptation for various applications. This design is perfect for both beginners and experts in microfluidics.

Components of the Use Case:

OB1 flow controller
Microfluidic flow sensor
15 mL Falcon tubes
Commercial spiral or pillar microfluidic chip with multiple outlets
Necessary accessories: connectors, filters, tubing, etc.
Software

Applications

Inertial microfluidics is versatile, suitable for processes such as live-dead cell separation, blood cell sorting, and specific particle filtration. Our microfluidic particle size sorting use case employs label-free inertial separation and Dean forces, creating vortices within spiral-shaped microchannels. These vortices differentiate particles based on size, with smaller particles moving towards the spiral’s center and larger ones towards the outer wall.

The effectiveness of this sorting process is determined by the Dean Number, which increases with higher Reynolds numbers and reduced curvature radii. Additionally, particles can be passively sorted using pillars that induce deterministic lateral displacement (DLD), further enhancing sorting accuracy.

Why use it?

Microfluidic particle sorting offers significant advantages over conventional methods, including label-free operation, reliance solely on mechanical forces, and the elimination of potential biohazardous aerosols. The system’s precision is especially effective in microfluidic conditions where Reynolds numbers are low, making it an ideal solution for specialized particle sorting tasks.

By tuning fluid velocity and utilizing multiple outlets on the microfluidic chip, researchers can achieve optimal particle sorting. These techniques enable more flexible, precise, and efficient sorting processes.

Configuration

Our microfluidic experts will guide you through the entire setup process, ensuring the use case is tailored to your specific needs, even for beginners in microfluidic technology. Commercially available spiral and pillar chips are offered in various materials and channel sizes, and custom designs can be fabricated upon request.

The sorting efficiency of the system is influenced by the Reynolds and Dean numbers, and our experts are available to help optimize your setup for maximum performance.

– Explore our other use cases for a variety of applications –

Microfluidic Particle Size Sorting

Use case

Biologically Active Cellular Monolayer with Stable Hemodynamic Forces

Talk to an expert

Microfluidic endothelial cell culture

Transition seamlessly from traditional 2D cell culture to cutting-edge organ-on-chip technology

Dynamic perfusion conditions

Improved in vitro model

Talk to an expert

Need help or technical information?

Talk to an expert

Need help or advice?

For any help to determine what microfluidic instruments you need, you can contact us!
Our experts will help you build the best microfluidic setup for your application, with our state-of-the-art microfluidic line.