Selective microorganism concentration using a dielectrophoresis-based microfabricated device

Detection of pathogenic microorganisms is a significant challenge in medicine, environmental protection and biological threat safety because samples are often contaminated. This work presents a method of separating bacterial spores from typical air contaminants such as sand or soot by means of dielectrophoresis. Spores of B. subtilis as well as model airborne interferents are characterized electrically; based on their properties, schemes of their electrical separation are proposed. The separation based on the frequency of applied electric field is implemented using microfabricated chips. To relate the data obtained from these microtools to particle concentration, a computer program is designed, implemented and validated. Experiments show that separation of bacterial spores from soot and sand suspended in water based on electrical properties of particles is possible and may serve as a way of enhancing spore concentration in mixtures.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2007

Author dc:creator

• Puchała, Katarzyna Anna

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Joel Voldman.

• Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/41544

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/41544