A comprehensive analysis of enhanced microfluidic device for detection of Pathogenic Bacteria and CTCs in the bloodstream

Abstract

Abstract In the current research scenario, microfluidics has gained immense attention in the field of medical diagnostics. However, a decisive platform for segregating multiple bioparticles like pathogenic bacteria, and CTCs from blood cells needs to be instigated. This paper proposes a microfluidic chip for the segregation of multiple bioparticles like pathogenic bacteria and CTCs from blood cells. Utilizing the Navier- Stokes equation for configuring the fluid flow in the microchannel, the study leverages the dielectrophoresis technique for manipulating target bacterial and cancer cells with a diameter of 1 µm and 16–30 µm respectively. The main channel of the microfluidic device has uniquely designed electrodes to generate the non-uniform electric field for manipulating the particles through different outlets. The blood, bacteria, and cancer cells are introduced through the inlet at the velocity of 100 µl/s and the buffer solution with a flow velocity of 700 µl/s. The analysis showed that at the electrode voltage of 14 Vp-p, the target bioparticles are separated efficiently. The chip is designed using the COMSOL Multiphysics tool, an advanced and promising platform for early detection of bloodstream bacterial infection and CTCs with perfect separation efficiency and purity.