Thesis (M.Sc.) - Cairo University - Faculty of Engineering - Department of Mechanical Design and Production

This thesis investigates new microfluidic technologies for the label-free detection of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) cells in blood, while maintaining high viability levels. A new technology where white blood cells (WBC) are passively encapsulated in phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) emulsions within an oil medium is proposed. The encapsulated cells are then biomechanically characterized through a microscopic high-speed imaging setup. These emulsions act as micro-environments that protect the cell and increase the viability of the diagnosed sample. Numerical studies were carried out to understand the internal flow fields accompanied with droplets moving inside rectangular microchannels as well as the factors affecting them. This is followed by a numerical investigation of the effect of the cell biomechanical properties on the encapsulated cell dynamics. Patients samples were used to test the validity of the identification assay, where the cell dynamic behavior was analyzed using image processing algorithms, showing no significant difference between the dynamics of the lymphocytes and ALL cells. The microfluidic chips were fabricated using various non-lithography fabrication techniques. Micromilling has demonstrated the ability to create channels of resolution down to 100 om with design-to-device time less than one hour, making it a superior technique for microfluidic prototyping

Issued also as CD