{"id":235894,"date":"2025-10-31T12:34:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-31T12:34:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/235894\/"},"modified":"2025-10-31T12:34:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-31T12:34:12","slug":"hypersonic-levitation-spinning-speeds-cell-isolation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/235894\/","title":{"rendered":"Hypersonic Levitation Spinning Speeds Cell Isolation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Many of the most devastating illnesses are like black boxes<\/a> to science. Most cancer<\/a> deaths, for example, are caused by strain from the disease spreading throughout the body, fueled by the few tumor cells able to survive the travel to different body parts and form new growths. But biologists know relatively little about how these aggressive cells function, which hinders knowledge of cancer progression and resistance. <\/p>\n

Oncology isn\u2019t the only field in pursuit of valuable information about single rare cells\u2014fields including developmental biology, immunology, stem cell biology, neuroscience<\/a>, and infectious disease<\/a> all require studying individual cells. By looking at cells one at a time rather than in bulk, researchers can uncover their genetic makeup and unique behavior, observing subtle but influential traits that would be otherwise hidden.<\/p>\n

The key to breakthroughs in all of these fields, experts say, is clear: better single-cell sequencing technology. <\/p>\n

To study rare cells, researchers need to separate individual cells from big clumps of human tissue, but doing so threatens the viability of the very cells they hope to analyze. Existing technologies to isolate cells often do so by sawing small pieces off of a larger tissue chunk with a scalpel or razor, potentially damaging the cells so they can no longer be studied properly. Other methods use enzymes to isolate cells, but those procedures are time consuming and can threaten useful cell characteristics. \u201cAnd for rare cell types, every little loss counts,\u201d says Katalin Susztak<\/a>, who studies chronic kidney disease at the University of Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n

Hypersonic Levitation in Cell Isolation<\/p>\n

A new method of isolating and suspending cells, called hypersonic levitation and spinning<\/a> (HLS), relies on acoustic resonators<\/a> and micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS)<\/a> technology to yield biology breakthroughs. The group from Tianjin University in China<\/a> responsible for its development found that the tool is able to isolate more cells in substantially less time than traditional techniques. <\/p>\n

HLS uses a metal probe to transmit billions of vibrations per second into a water mixture surrounding human cancer tissue in a research lab. The resulting \u201cliquid jets\u201d peel a single cancer cell away from thousands of others in the chunk of tissue, an entirely contact-free process. The cell is held in place by the liquid jets\u2014suspended in the fluid but free to spin at any degree\u2014allowing for complete visual analysis from every angle with advanced microscopy<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Xuexin Duan<\/a>, who leads the Tianjin University group, and his colleagues set out to invent a tool that would not only lessen the threat to cells during the isolation process, but speed the whole process up. They started by considering the fact that living cells<\/a> are generally surrounded by water. \u201cWe asked: could we use a finely tuned physical field within the fluid itself to act as a gentle, invisible hand?\u201d Duan says.<\/p>\n

They came up with a small, high-frequency ultrasound<\/a> probe that uses three MEMS-based resonators to vibrate tissue in a water and enzyme solution. When the device is turned on, a signal generated at 2.49 gigahertz alerts a printed circuit board to send out a high-frequency voltage. Once the voltage reaches the MEMS<\/a> resonators, an inverse piezoelectric effect<\/a> is triggered, yielding billions of vibrations per second that generate acoustic waves in the surrounding fluid.<\/p>\n

A reflector beneath each resonator<\/a> bounces the waves in a specific pattern, causing the water-enzyme mixture to start flowing and spinning quickly\u2014creating liquid jets powerful enough to remove a single cell from a clump of tissue, but gentle enough to do so without deterioration. Once a cell is isolated, the same acoustic mechanisms allow it to float and spin freely in the fluid.<\/p>\n

\n

While much of the design is unique, HLS is more of a refinement than a completely new device. \u201cThis levitation method has been used before for other types of work,\u201d says Z. Hugh Fan<\/a>, a biomedical MEMS and microfluidics<\/a> researcher at the University of Florida. He says that HLS \u201cis an improvement, not a dramatic change.\u201d Still, Fan thinks the tool shows serious potential. <\/p>\n

The Tianjin University researchers tested their device on human renal cancer tissue samples. Using HLS, the group was able to isolate 90 percent of cells in 15 minutes, but could only do the same for 70 percent of cells in an hour using conventional methods. HLS performed so well because it helps the enzymes penetrate the tissue and break up cells \u201cwithout the need for harsh mechanical grinding or prolonged enzymatic exposure,\u201d Duan says.<\/p>\n

Concerns Over HLS in Single-Cell Research<\/p>\n

The biggest concern from University of Pennsylvania\u2019s Susztak is that HLS may pose a threat to cells sensitive to high-frequencies. \u201cEven slight perturbations matter in single-cell work,\u201d she says. \u201cWill the acoustic fields perturb the cell\u2019s biochemistry?\u201d<\/p>\n

Duan is confident that his team\u2019s design is safe for fragile cells because they experience a controlled force, not the raw acoustic wave, he claims. \u201cThis intense force field is confined to the fluid, not the cell directly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Outside experts have more concerns about implementation. Susztak notes that \u201cbiological labs are unforgiving\u201d so research tools must be reliable and robust, and MEMS devices in fluid tend to face drift and calibration issues. Cost and ease of access concern Fan, though he thinks that both issues could be solved by business efforts. \u201cHow mainstream it will become is really dependent on commercialization,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n

For these reasons and others, Duan says that his team has spun HLS into a startup company\u2014Convergency Biotech\u2014with the goal to develop HLS workstations user-friendly enough for any lab. And he\u2019s optimistic about the enterprise. \u201cWe believe MEMS-based acoustic tools will become a mainstream component of the biological toolkit,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Single-cell researchers show similar optimism, but in the company of caution. Susztak considers HLS \u201ca clever tool with genuine promise,\u201d she says, \u201cbut it must prove itself in the messy world of real biology.\u201d<\/p>\n

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