Microfluidic impedance cytometer for characterization of subcellular morphology of single cells

This paper reports on a microfluidic impedance cytometer permitting dielectric characterization of single cells at frequencies up to 500 MHz. This represents a more than ten-fold frequency increase compared to other devices and enables to study both, low and high frequency dielectric properties in parallel. The increased range potentially allows for characterization of subcellular components in addition to the properties that are visible at lower frequencies, such as cell volume and membrane capacitance. We demonstrate the capabilities of the cytometer by discriminating wild-type yeast from a mutant, which differs in size and distribution of vacuoles in the intracellular fluid. The discrimination is based on the differences in dielectric properties at frequencies up to 200 MHz.