Flow cytometry and cell sorting

Flow cytometry is a versatile technology for identification and separation of cell species, and even individual cells, from fluid samples such as blood. Especially when combined with a cell sorting module for further downstream analysis, it’s a powerful tool for applications such as diagnostics and bioprocess monitoring and control.

Conventional cytometric technologies – often based on glass or plastic substrates and frequently found as benchtop systems in research labs – fail to meet the standards for clinical practice.

• They are complex to operate and lack automation.
• They allow risks for contamination and carry-over of samples.
• They take a lot of time to get from sample to result.

In order to make life-saving treatments such as CAR T cell therapies widely available and affordable, we need cytometry and cell sorting solutions that are closed and compact, easy to use, high-throughput, and low-cost.

Bringing flow cytometry on a chip

Chip technology, in particular silicon microfluidics, is excellently suited to tackle these challenges. Because of its compactness and scalability, it allows a substantial parallelization of the channels – increasing the throughput without making concessions on sorting precision, or viability of the cells.

In addition, on-chip flow cytometry allows the development of integrated solutions that combine microfluidics, photonics, MEMS, imaging, computation, ... in one closed and compact system. Such a system can be used in decentralized settings and is explicitly recommended by the FDA and other guidelines to improve therapies administered to patients.

Imec’s flow cytometer and cell sorter

Imec developed a flow cytometry and cell sorter concept that can select cells based on multiple markers, and then further analyze them downstream. This is the operating principle:

• A sample from a liquid biopsy – with fluorescent beads attached to the cells – is loaded into the microfluidic channel that’s about 30µ (roughly 1 cell) wide.
• Conditioned light illuminates the cells, resulting in fringe patterns registered by a CMOS image sensor.
• Because cell types have different optical signatures, the fringe patterns make it possible to distinguish them – thanks to rapid calculations by an ASIC.
• Microheaters generate steam bubbles that push particular cells to a designated outlet.
• Downstream, these cells can be analyzed further, using techniques such as PCR-on-chip and lens-free imaging.

Thanks to the parallelization in up to 100 of these channels, sorting speeds reach 20 million cells per minute, all with a disposable device of only a few cm².

A few key benefits of imec’s cytometry and cell sorter device:

• It’s a compact and closed system that can be inexpensively mass-produced. This makes it ideal for point-of-care applications.
• It’s robust thanks to the absence of mechanically moving parts.
• It allows multi-marker selection.

Work with us

The building blocks of imec’s flow cytometry and cell sorting solution have been internally validated for integration in systems for next-gen diagnostics and bioprocess monitoring and control, and are available for licensing.