Diffusion sensing of exosome using localized enrichment by dynamic light-induced dielectrophoresis

Abstract Exosomes play an important role in mediating cell–cell communication and are expected to have significant potential in diagnostic and therapeutic applications. In this study, we propose an opto-microfluidic characterization technique for exosomes based on the measurement of the diffusion coefficient using dynamic manipulation via light-induced dielectrophoresis. The concentration of exosomes is enhanced through approximately 20 min of dynamic manipulation followed by rapid diffractive detection within a few seconds to determine the diffusion coefficient. The applicability of the proposed method to exosome analysis is validated by comparison with results obtained using an alternative sensing technique.