Guest_Jim_* Posted April 9, 2015 Posted April 9, 2015 One of the many challenges when it comes to cancer is finding circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in a blood sample. Traditional methods involve using special antibodies and centrifuges that run for ten minutes. Researchers at Penn State though have developed a much simpler technique that utilizes sound waves to separate cells at a rate better than 83%. The new technique exploits the fact that sound waves are pressure waves, which means they can exert a force to move small objects, like cells and nanoparticles. The researchers worked with an acoustic-based microfluidic device, which allows blood to stream through continuously, and applied sound waves of the same frequency to both sides. This creates an area where the sound waves from the two sources cancel out, so an object pushed along by the waves will stop in that area, and continue flowing through the device, but separated from other, different particles. The researchers optimized the procedure to separate HELA and MCF7 cells, and achieved a separation rate better than 83%, and when they tested it with other cancer cells achieved the same better than 83% rate. Obviously this could greatly help with the treatment of cancer by allowing for a simpler, faster, and cheaper process to identify cancer cells in the blood. Some more work is definitely needed though, such as finding how to mass produce these devices, so they can be disposable after having touched human blood. Source: Penn State Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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