Authors
C Regnault4; K Punyani 2; O Otto 1; C Herold1; C Honrado3; J Tegenfeldt2; J Guck1; H Morgan3; M P Barrett4; 1 Biotechnology Center, Technische Universität Dresden; 2 Division of Solid State Physics, Department of Physics, Lund University, Lund; 3 Faculty of Physical Sciences and Engineering, Institute for Life Sciences, University of Southampton; 4 Wellcome Trust Centre for Molecular Parasitology, Institute of Infection, Immunity and Inflammation, College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences, University of Glasgow Discussion
Recent advances in microfluidics have led to new insights in the separation of parasites from complex samples. In particular, deterministic lateral displacement (DLD) is a robust micro-total analysis system that exploits label-free fractionation of heterogeneous cell populations. Therefore, work has been done on the development of DLD devices enabling to separate Leishmania promastigotes from blood. Moreover, separation of macrophages infected with parasites from healthy macrophages is also of interest from a diagnosis point of view. The differences in size and deformability of these two cell populations are being investigated; and their differences in dielectric properties will be quantified. Following these experiments, DLD devices sensitive for these differences and aiming at enriching for parasite-infected cells will be designed and developed before being tested on in vitro samples. A device is being optimized to electrically lyse infected macrophages in order to release the intracellular amastigotes they contain. A DLD device has been designed to enrich for amastigotes from lysis debris. These strategies could eventually have applications in the diagnosis of leishmaniasis. 
