dielectrophoretic concentration and separation of live and.pdfVIP

Anal. Chem. 2004, 76, Dielectrophoretic Concentration and Separation of Live and Dead Bacteria in an Array of Insulators Blanca H. Lapizco-Encinas,† Blake A. Simmons,‡ Eric B. Cummings,† and Yolanda Fintschenko*,† Microfluidics Department, Sandia National Laboratories, P.O. Box 969, MS 9951, Livermore, California 94551, and Materials Chemistry Department, Sandia National Laboratories, P.O. Box 969, MS 9403, Livermore, California 94551 Insulator-based (electrodeless) dielectrophoresis (iDEP) has not previously been reported with live and dead bacterial is an innovative approach in which the nonuniform cells.7 The great potential for the application of iDEP for the electric field needed to drive DEP is produced by insula- selective concentration of bacteria from water motivates these tors, avoiding problems associated with the use of elec- bacterial studies. trodes. Live and dead Escherichia coli were concen- A number of methods exist to separate and concentrate trated and selectively released by applying stepped DC bacteria, including the ubiquitous techniques of filtration and voltages across a microchannel containing an array of centrifugation. However, electric field-based separation methods insulating posts etched in glass. The only electrodes are of interest because of their potential for automation, minia- present were two platinum wires placed in the inlet and turization, and massive parallelization. A number of studies have outlet reservoirs, producing mean electric fields of up to been carried out using CE for the separation of bacteria and 200 V