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Project

Impedance flow cytometry with specificity towards epitopes

The proposed research is on development of purely electrical flow-cytometer. Cytometer is an instrument that is capable of assessing cell morphology (size, granularity), and detect presence of characteristic epitopes (antigenes or receptors) on the cell membrane. Investigated cells are flowing consecutively through the sensor allowing to quickly classify the biological sample, for instance, blood cells. High speed and high sensitivity make cytometers invaluable tool for modern diagnostics. Unfortunately, the optical sensors employed in flow cytometers are fragile, expensive and bulky, which makes cytometry elite. The idea of this project is to replace these optical sensors with purely electrical ones, which are more robust, cheaper, and way smaller. Size cell and granularity are determined by measurements of the relative change of the electrical parameters, namely impedance, caused by passing cells. Detecting epitopes is achieved by adding corresponding antibodies, which are, in turn, conjugated with magnetic nanoparticles. These nanoparticles can be already detected with electric measurements. In order to distinguish several types of nanoparticles, and thus, several epitopes, the measurements are taken in a very broad range of frequencies. Each nanoparticle should has its own specific spectral signature, which will be used for epitope detection.

Date:1 Oct 2018 →  28 Feb 2021
Keywords:Flowcytometrie
Disciplines:Nanotechnology, Design theories and methods, Communications, Communications technology, Modelling, Multimedia processing