Modeling, Simulation, and Performance Evaluation of a Novel Microfluidic Impedance Cytometer for Morphology-Based Cell Discrimination

The performance of a novel microfluidic impedance cytometer [1] for single-cell analysis is investigated in-silico by means of a finite element model. The main feature of the device is the ability to probe impedance of flowing cells along two orthogonal directions. As proved by means of numerical simulations involving spherical and ellipsoidal cells, this allows to extract information on cell morphology. In particular, simple anisotropy indices are devised, which are independent from cell volume and rather insensitive to small imperfections in the focusing system. In addition, simulations with budding yeasts show the capability of the device to identify the cell division stage.