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.
Claims19
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.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.