What’s fascinating is that larger cells get trapped in a repeating circular pattern, while smaller cells are not as affected and pass through to the outflow channels. Cancer cells tend to be larger than red and white blood cells, so as the microfluidic system lets blood cells pass the CTCs keep spinning within the boxes. Once the entire sample is passed through, a carefully tuned wash is done to finally release the CTCs toward collection.
Liquid biopsy system captures CTCs with ease
Vortex Biosciences just launched its VTX-1 Liquid Biopsy System, a device that automates the extraction of circulating tumour cells (CTCs) from whole blood. The filter-free technology is based on microfluidic chips with a series of connected boxes linked by narrow channels. As blood is carefully pushed through the system, liquid vortexes are created within the boxes.