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Massively parallel manipulation of single cells and microparticles using optical images

Nature volume 436, pages 370–372 (2005)Cite this article

Abstract

The ability to manipulate biological cells and micrometre-scale particles plays an important role in many biological and colloidal science applications. However, conventional manipulation techniques—including optical tweezers1,2,3,4,5,6, electrokinetic forces (electrophoresis7,8, dielectrophoresis9, travelling-wave dielectrophoresis10,11), magnetic tweezers12,13, acoustic traps14 and hydrodynamic flows15,16,17—cannot achieve high resolution and high throughput at the same time. Optical tweezers offer high resolution for trapping single particles, but have a limited manipulation area owing to tight focusing requirements; on the other hand, electrokinetic forces and other mechanisms provide high throughput, but lack the flexibility or the spatial resolution necessary for controlling individual cells. Here we present an optical image-driven dielectrophoresis technique that permits high-resolution patterning of electric fields on a photoconductive surface for manipulating single particles. It requires 100,000 times less optical intensity than optical tweezers. Using an incoherent light source (a light-emitting diode or a halogen lamp) and a digital micromirror spatial light modulator, we have demonstrated parallel manipulation of 15,000 particle traps on a 1.3 × 1.0 mm2 area. With direct optical imaging control, multiple manipulation functions are combined to achieve complex, multi-step manipulation protocols.

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Figure 1: Device structure used in optoelectronic tweezers.
Figure 2: Massively parallel manipulation of single particles.
Figure 3: An example of an integrated virtual optical machine.
Figure 4: Selective collection of live cells from a mixture of live and dead cells.

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Acknowledgements

We thank E.R.B. McCabe, U. Bhardwaj, R. Sun and F. Yu at UCLA for providing cultured human B cells for our experiments. We also thank A. Wheeler for technical advice regarding our cell experiments. This project is supported by the Center for Cell Mimetic Space Exploration (CMISE), a NASA University Research, Engineering and Technology Institute (URETI), and the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA). P.Y.C acknowledges support from the Graduate Research and Education in Adaptive Bio-Technology (GREAT) training program. A.T.O acknowledges support from a National Science Foundation fellowship.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, and Berkeley Sensor and Actuator Centre (BSAC), University of California at Berkeley, California, 94720, USA

    Pei Yu Chiou, Aaron T. Ohta & Ming C. Wu

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  1. Pei Yu Chiou
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  2. Aaron T. Ohta
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Correspondence to Ming C. Wu.

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Supplementary information

Supplementary Video 1

Parallel single particle manipulation (MPG 6816 kb)

Supplementary Video 2

1 µm particle trap using LED (AVI 9011 kb)

Supplementary Video 3

B-cell concentrator (MPG 8112 kb)

Supplementary Video 4

Integrated optical manipulator (MPG 9473 kb)

Supplementary Video Legends (DOC 21 kb)

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Chiou, P., Ohta, A. & Wu, M. Massively parallel manipulation of single cells and microparticles using optical images. Nature 436, 370–372 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature03831

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