Optofluidic cell manipulation for a biological microbeam.

This paper describes the fabrication and integration of light-induced dielectrophoresis for cellular manipulation in biological microbeams. An optoelectronic tweezers (OET) cellular manipulation platform was designed, fabricated, and tested at Columbia University's Radiological Research Accelerator Facility (RARAF). The platform involves a light induced dielectrophoretic surface and a microfluidic chamber with channels for easy input and output of cells. The electrical conductivity of the particle-laden medium was optimized to maximize the dielectrophoretic force. To experimentally validate the operation of the OET device, we demonstrate UV-microspot irradiation of cells containing green fluorescent protein (GFP) tagged DNA single-strand break repair protein, targeted in suspension. We demonstrate the optofluidic control of single cells and groups of cells before, during, and after irradiation. The integration of optofluidic cellular manipulation into a biological microbeam enhances the facility's ability to handle non-adherent cells such as lymphocytes. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that OET cell handling is successfully implemented in a biological microbeam.