Contactless dielectrophoresis cartridge for clean cell sorting
This technology is a microfluidic device that sorts and separates cells or particles from a fluid sample using electric fields — without the electrodes ever touching the sample. Instead, the electrodes sit in separate channels and influence the sample through thin insulating barriers, which act like capacitors when high-frequency electrical current is applied. Because the electrodes never contact the sample, they don't get fouled or contaminated, and the sample itself stays clean and unaltered. This makes it possible to reliably isolate specific cell types — such as cancer cells or bacteria — from complex biological fluids with greater repeatability than conventional electrode-in-sample designs.
What you could build
A disposable or reusable lab-on-chip cartridge for cell sorting and isolation, sold to clinical diagnostics labs, pharmaceutical research teams, and biotech companies running cell therapy workflows or rare-cell detection assays.
Who in Virginia should care
Virginia-based biotech and life sciences companies (concentrated around Northern Virginia and the Richmond corridor), as well as defense contractors with biosurveillance or field diagnostics programs, would have plausible interest.
Readiness: Lab validated
Concept — described but not yet demonstrated. Lab validated — supported by experimental results in the patent. Prototype likely — the text describes a built, working embodiment.
Readiness is inferred from the patent text, not from a lab visit.
The record
- Inventors
- Rafael V. Davalos, Hadi Shafiee, Michael Benjamin Sano, John L. Caldwell
- Granted
- September 18, 2018
- Status
- Granted patent
- Patent number
- 10078066
Ready to talk?
Virginia Tech Intellectual Properties handles licensing for this technology.
Prosim summaries are generated from public patent text and are not legal advice.