Temperature-tunable micropillars enable programmable sorting of particles and cells

A programmable microfluidic device developed at the Institute of Science Tokyo, Japan, combines deterministic lateral displacement, a microfluidic technique used to separate particles according to size, with temperature-responsive polymer micropillars to dynamically change separation conditions along a single channel. Using this device, researchers successfully separated multiple particle populations. Additionally, they efficiently isolated viable cancer cells, white blood cells and red blood cells from diluted whole blood.