A compact microfluidic continuous flow separator for particle and cell sorting

This paper presents the development of a microfluidic device capable of continuous particle and cell separation. Pillars are placed within the microchannel to alter the fluid flow pathway, allowing particles of a certain size to be diverted toward a specified route. Polystyrene beads, 45 mum and 90 mum in diameter, were used to characterize the device; 100 % of the larger particles and 94 % of the smaller particles went to their respective bins at a rate of 5 beads/sec. Experiments were also performed with mouse embryoid bodies (EBs), which could also be separated into two groups according to their size.