Silicon Chip Filters Out Cancer Cells, Finds Princeton University and Boston University School of Medicine Scientists

New Scientist -- It’s harder than finding a needle in a haystack. Unusual or rare cells, such as those that cause the spread of cancer, are difficult to isolate from thousands of other cells in a sample. Now a new device has been developed which can direct and focus streams of cells in a liquid, and even separate them out according to size. “We can take a stream of cells and focus, defocus and reflect it as if it’s a light beam,” says Robert Austin of Princeton University, who developed the device with colleagues from Princeton and Boston University, Massachusetts.

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