A Compact Optofluidic Cytometer for Detection and Enumeration of Tumor Cells

Biophotonics has emerged as a powerful technology, which can reveal very important physiological information for healthcare applications. Nowadays, with the development of advanced micro/nano fabrication technology, the interdisciplinary optofluidic technology by integrating the polymer-based microfluidic chip with the optical fiber provides a convenient and powerful platform for point of care diagnosis. In this paper, we demonstrate a low cost and compact optofluidic cytometer, which is able to characterize the biological cells by analyzing multiple phenoltypical and biochemical parameters. This device includes the microfluidic focusing and optical detection components on a glass substrate made with Poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS). Multiple optical parameters such as fluorescence, side scatter, and forward scatter are obtained to provide 3-D plots for determination of cell types and subpopulations. As a specific biomedical application, the proposed compact optofluidic cytometer is able to provide a rapid and low-cost platform for detection of tumor cells.