Modelling of an Enhanced Microfluidic Device for Segregation of Circulating Tumor Cells using Asymmetric Deterministic Lateral Displacement

Abstract

Circulating Tumor cells (CTCs) are very rare cells in blood samples of cancer patients which act as biomarkers for advance cancer diagnosis. Deterministic Lateral Displacement (DLD) has been successfully tested as an effective technique for separation of cells. In the proposed model of microfluidic device using COMSOL Multiphysics 5.4 software, an asymmetric DLD array of circular pillars has been employed to enhance the separation efficiency for separation of CTCs in the case of higher throughput operation. The simulated device showed clear separation of CTCs present in blood sample of lung cancer patients with diameter 22.5 µm from White blood cells (WBCs) of diameter 12 µm at a very high sample flow rate of 22×10-6 kg/s and Reynolds number of 40.4 offering minimum resistance by the implanted pillars thereby enhancing throughput and reducing chances of deformation of CTCs during passage inside the device. The proposed model sharply enhances the separation resolution of the DLD array at very high throughput and indicates better purity of extracted cells at the respective outlets compared to existing models for segregation of CTCs.