Dielectrophoresis and Theoretical Studies of Dipolar Chaining Effects in Cells

The development of microelectrode-based technologies has facilitated the development of sophisticated methods for manipulating and separating cells, bacteria, and other bioparticles. For many of these various applications, the theoretical modeling of the electrical response of compartmentalized particles to an external electric field is important. This paper describes a new boundary element method, derived from a consideration of the charge densities induced at the interfaces of a compartmentalized particle, for modeling the dielectric properties of cells. Experimental validation of this theoretical model has been obtained by investigating the influence that dipolar ´pearl-chaining´ effects have on the dielectrophoretic behavior of human T lymphocytes