Developing a Dielectrophoretic Method to Isolate Circulating Melanoma Cells
Source: LCGC, September 2023
The AES Mid-Career Award recognizes exceptional contributions to the field of electrophoresis, microfluidics, and related areas by an individual who is currently in the middle of their career. This year’s recipient, Robbyn K. Anand, Suresh Faculty Fellow and Carlyle G. Caldwell Endowed Chair in Chemistry at Iowa State University, has, along with her group, developed methods for circulating tumor cell analysis, electrokinetic enrichment and separation of chemical species within water-in-oil droplets, and more sensitive bioanalysis at arrays of wireless bipolar electrodes (1).
The award is to be presented at the annual SciX conference, which will be held this year from October 8 through October 13, in Sparks, Nevada. As part of an ongoing series of this year’s SciX conference honorees, Robbyn spoke to us about her work.
In a recent paper (2), you discuss a dielectrophoretic (DEP) method for selection of circulating melanoma cells (CMCs), which lack reliable identifying surface antigens and are extremely rare in blood. What motivated you to develop a DEP method rather than using a different technology?