Microfluidic flow control using direct-current peristaltic pump
AssigneeThe Regents of the University of Michigan
InventorsSunitha Nagrath, Kaylee J. Smith, Kenn Oldham, Jason Smyth
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Abstract
A peristaltic pump-based apparatus for capturing circulating tumor cells (CTCs) from blood is provided that includes a feedback control architecture that uses models of pump operation and measures of internal pressure fluctuations of the pump (e.g., in the form time-varying and/or position-dependent pressure oscillation data) to adjust pump operating characteristics that smooth pump operation, thereby improving viscosity and consistency of fluid flowing through the pump to a connected microfluidic capture device.
Claims20
A device for capturing circulating candidate cells from blood, the device comprising:
- a housing having a fluid inlet channel to receive the blood from the vasculature of a subject and a fluid outlet channel to return the blood to the vasculature;
- a peristaltic pump module encapsulated within the housing and fluidly coupled to the inlet channel to receive the blood at a first flow rate and to convert to a second flow rate and output the blood from a pump outlet channel at the second flow rate;
- a candidate cell capture module within the housing and having a microfluidic capture stage to capture the circulating candidate cells with the blood from the vasculature before providing the return of the blood to the vasculature;
- and
- a control system to control operating characteristics of the peristaltic pump module, the control system having a pressure sensor to measure continuous pressure fluctuations of the peristaltic pump module and a feedback control configuration to adjust the operating characteristics of the peristaltic pump module in response to the measured continuous pressure fluctuations, wherein the control system is configured to compare the continuous pressure fluctuations from the pressure sensor to a reference pressure corresponding to the peristaltic pump module and from the comparison determine a change in the operating characteristics of the peristaltic pump module.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.