Characterization of PDMS Thickness and the Releasability of Magnetic Microrafts (2014)
Undergraduates: Robert Hinson, Pete Attayek
Faculty Advisor: Nancy Allbritton
Department: Applied Sciences
Isolating desired cell lines from a sample is a critical step in a lot of biomedical research. There are multiple to isolate and sort cells, such as fluorescence-activated cell sorting and microarrays containing releasable, magnetic plastic rafts. The latter technology was studied to optimize the thickness of the arrays to maximize imaging quality while also maintaining the efficiency and reliability of isolating a desired cell line. This was done by varying the thickness of the microwell arrays and quantifying the number of attempts to release a raft as well as the number of additional, undesired rafts were released. It was found that thicker arrays improved imaging quality by reducing sag of the arrays and also retained the reliability of the raft release.