Design of electrokinetic toolbox for rare cell manipulation

The goal of the thesis is to develop an electrokinetic toolbox for rare cell manipulation. Rare cell populations such as cancer stem cells and circulating tumor cells have recently been demonstrated as key causes for development and perpetuation of several forms of cancer. These rare cells are highly heterogeneous and have the capacity to self-renew and drive continued expansion of the population of malignant cells. Current diagnostic and therapeutic techniques are geared only for analysis and treatment of cancer cells but not rare cell populations. The major reason for this is due to the lack of recognizable as well as common surface markers and membrane proteins unique to cancer stem cells. In this thesis, an electrokinetic toolbox has been designed to achieve label free separation, manipulation and control of such rare cell populations. The designed technique focuses on achieving this separation based on the unique intracellular protein biomarker dielectric profile of rare cells. A summary of the existing applications of these techniques and the novel innovation proposed and achieved is presented.