MIT scientists devise cell sorting system
Published: March 17, 2008 at 12:22 PM
CAMBRIDGE, Mass., March 17 (UPI) -- U.S. scientists have devised a cell sorting system that might become a low-cost tool for diagnosing cancer and other diseases.
The study's lead author, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Assistant Professor Rohit Karnik, said the cell sorting method is minimally invasive and highly innovative.
It's a new discovery," Karnik said. "Nobody has ever done anything like this before."
The method relies on the way cells sometimes interact with a surface, such as the wall of a blood vessel, by rolling along it. In the new device, a surface is coated with lines of a material that interacts with the cells, making it seem sticky to specific types of cells, the scientists said. The sticky lines are oriented diagonally to the flow of cell-containing fluid passing over the surface, so as certain kinds of cells respond to the coating they are nudged to one side, allowing them to be separated.
The researchers said cancer cells, for example, can be separated from normal cells by the method, which might ultimately lead to a simple device for cancer screening. Stem cells also exhibit the same kind of selective response.
The research is detailed in the journal Nano Letters.
The study's lead author, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Assistant Professor Rohit Karnik, said the cell sorting method is minimally invasive and highly innovative.
It's a new discovery," Karnik said. "Nobody has ever done anything like this before."
The method relies on the way cells sometimes interact with a surface, such as the wall of a blood vessel, by rolling along it. In the new device, a surface is coated with lines of a material that interacts with the cells, making it seem sticky to specific types of cells, the scientists said. The sticky lines are oriented diagonally to the flow of cell-containing fluid passing over the surface, so as certain kinds of cells respond to the coating they are nudged to one side, allowing them to be separated.
The researchers said cancer cells, for example, can be separated from normal cells by the method, which might ultimately lead to a simple device for cancer screening. Stem cells also exhibit the same kind of selective response.
The research is detailed in the journal Nano Letters.
© 2008 United Press International. All Rights Reserved.
This material may not be reproduced, redistributed, or manipulated in any form.
This material may not be reproduced, redistributed, or manipulated in any form.
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This undated NASA image shows two galaxies that are slowly colliding and possibly, in hundreds of millions of years, only one galaxy will remain. Although it is likely that no stars in the two galaxies will directly collide, the gas, dust and ambient magnetic fields do interact directly. These galaxies, part of the vast Hydra-Centaurus supercluster of galaxies, spans over 100 thousand light-years across and is located about 100 million light-years away. (UPI Photo/NASA/ESA/Hubble Heritage)
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