ADVANCES In DIELECTROPHORESIS ON-A Chip

Liquid biopsy has emerged as a transformative tool in oncology, offering a non-invasive alternative to traditional tissue biopsies. One approach utilizes circulating tumour cells (CTCs) from body fluids such as blood, urine, and saliva to provide insights into tumour genetics and dynamics. A method for isolating CTCs uses the dielectrophoresis phenomenon and microfluidic platforms. The present work reviews the advances in dielectrophoresis on a chip. First, we present the fundamental theory of dielectrophoresis, followed by the main operating principles. We further discuss some of the separation techniques using dielectrophoresis. We finally present the main challenges and concluding remarks. We finally present the main challenges and concluding remarks. Translating DEP technology from lab-scale to industrial applications remains challenging due to the complexities of creating large-scale, non-uniform electric fields.