Optical Fiber-Based Module for Selection and Picking of Cells and Cell Clusters

¹ Laser Physics Group, Department of Applied Physics, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden
² Division of Nanobiotechnology, Department of Protein Science, Science for Life Laboratory, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Solna, Sweden
³ Research Institutes of Sweden (RISE), Stockholm, Sweden

^* Corresponding author: harishav@kth.se
^† Authors have contributed equally

Published online: 31 October 2024

Abstract

We have developed an optical fiber-based module that can select, retrieve, and transfer single cells, and cell clusters. Cell picking and isolation has several applications such as separating circulating tumor cells, isolating single fetal cells for prenatal testing, and others. Our Lab-in-a-Fiber (LiF) module can detect fluorescent cancer cells (MCF-7) from a mixture of labeled and unlabeled cells and pick them up for further analysis. The cells picked up by the fiber show a 90% survival rate on viability tests, making this cell-picking technique an attractive alternative to existing methods.