| Summary: | We show that by combining deterministic lateral displacement (DLD) with electrokinetics, it is possible to sort cells based on differences in their membrane and/or internal structures. Using heat to deactivate cells, which change their viability and structure, we then demonstrate sorting of a mixture of viable and non-viable cells for two different cell types. For <i>Escherichia coli,</i> the size change due to deactivation is insufficient to allow size-based DLD separation. Our method instead leverages the considerable change in zeta potential to achieve separation at low frequency. Conversely, for <i>Saccharomyces cerevisiae</i> (Baker’s yeast) the heat treatment does not result in any significant change of zeta potential. Instead, we perform the sorting at higher frequency and utilize what we believe is a change in dielectrophoretic mobility for the separation. We expect our work to form a basis for the development of simple, low-cost, continuous label-free methods that can separate cells and bioparticles based on their intrinsic properties.
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