Claims
- 1. An electrorotation chip comprising:
a single substrate; and a plurality of electrorotation units disposed on said single substrate, wherein each of said electrorotation units comprises more than one electrode element disposed on said single substrate and connected to a signal input such that a rotating electrical field is generated when a plurality of phase-shifted electrical signals are applied to said electrode elements and wherein the number of electrode elements within each electrorotation unit is the same as the number of signal inputs.
- 2. The electrorotation chip of claim 1, wherein said single substrate comprises a material selected from the group consisting of a non-porous solid material, and a porous solid material.
- 3. The electrorotation chip of claim 2, wherein said non-porous solid material or said porous solid material is selected from the group consisting of glass, silicon, plastic, and ceramic.
- 4. The electrorotation chip of claim 1, wherein said electrorotation units are distributed in a plurality of columns and rows.
- 5. The electrorotation chip of claim 1, wherein said plurality of electrode elements are positioned such that the rotating electrical fields generated by adjacent electrorotation units are in opposite directions.
- 6. The electrorotation chip of claim 1, wherein said plurality of electrode elements are positioned such that an electrode element of a first electrorotation unit is electrically connected to the nearest electrode element of a second adjacent electrorotation unit.
- 7. The electrorotation chip of claim 1, wherein said plurality of electrode elements are positioned such that an electrode element of a first electrorotation unit is also an electrode element of a second adjacent electrorotation unit.
- 8. The electrorotation chip of claim 1, further comprising at least one signal generator that generates the phase-shifted electrical signals, said at least one signal generator being electrically connected to said electrorotation units.
- 9. The electrorotation chip of claim 8, wherein said signal generator generates a periodic waveform.
- 10. The electrorotation chip of claim 8 wherein the phase-shifted electrical signals are generated using a plurality of analog filters to shift the phase of a signal.
- 11. The electrorotation chip of claim 1, wherein N is the number of said electrode elements in each said electrorotation unit and the phase-shifted electrical signals have phase offset values of 0, 360/N, 360*2/N, 360*3/N, . . . 360*(N−1)/N.
- 12. The electrorotation chip of claim 1, further comprising a plurality of switches that apply the phase-shifted electrical signals to said electrode elements when said switches are conducting.
- 13. The electrorotation chip of claim 12, wherein said switches are selected from the group consisting of bipolar junction transistors and metal oxide semiconductor field-effect transistors.
- 14. The electrorotation chip of claim 1, wherein said electrode elements resemble a structure selected from the group consisting of a butterfly footprint, a rectangular shape, and one face shaped in an arc.
- 15. The electrorotation chip of claim 1, wherein said electrorotation units comprise at least three electrode elements uniformly disposed about a center of the rotating electric field.
- 16. The electrorotation chip of claim 1, wherein said electrorotation units comprise four electrode elements uniformly disposed about a center of the rotating electric field.
- 17. The electrorotation chip of claim 1, further comprising a plate joined to said electrorotation chip, wherein said plate comprises at least one hole.
- 18. The electrorotation chip of claim 17, wherein said plate comprises a plurality of holes and, wherein each of said holes provides access to only one electrorotation unit.
- 19. A method of determining an electrical property of a particle comprising:
providing the electrorotation chip of claim 1;placing at least one particle in said plurality of electrorotation units; inducing rotating electrical fields in said electrorotation units; and measuring the rotation of said at least one particle and thereby determining the electrical property of said at least one particle.
- 20. The method of claim 19, wherein said at least one particle is selected from the group consisting of a biological molecule, a biological complex, an immune complex, a liposome, a protoplast, a platelet, a virus, and a cell.
- 21. The method of claim 19, wherein the rotation of said at least one particle is measured at more than one frequency.
- 22. The method of claim 19, wherein the electrical properties of a plurality of particles are measured.
- 23. The method of claim 19, wherein said plurality of particles are a heterogeneous population.
- 24. The method of claim 19, further comprising identifying those particles that have similar electrical properties.
- 25. A method of identifying an agent that changes the electrorotational properties of a cell comprising:
providing the electrorotation chip of claim 1;placing at least one cell in said plurality of electrorotation units; contacting said cell with a candidate molecule; inducing rotating electrical fields in said electrorotation units; measuring the rotation of said cell; determining the presence or absence of an effect on the electrorotational properties of said cell by comparing the rotation of said cell before contact with said candidate molecule with the rotation of said cell after contact with said candidate molecule or by comparing the rotation of a control cell that was not exposed to said candidate molecule with the rotation of said cell after contact with said candidate molecule; and identifying said candidate molecule as an agent that changes said electrorotational properties of said cell if said cells contacted with said candidate molecule have different electrorotational properties than said cells before contact with said candidate molecule or said control cells.
- 26. The method of claim 25, wherein the rotation is measured at more than one frequency.
- 27. The method of claim 25, wherein the electrical property of a plurality of cells are measured.
- 28. The method of claim 27, wherein said plurality of cells are a heterogeneous population.
- 29. The method of claim 28, further comprising identifying those cells that have similar electrical properties.
- 30. A method of determining the identity or concentration of a molecule in a biological sample comprising:
providing the electrorotation chip of claim 1;coating particles with a detection reagent which binds to said molecule; placing at least one coated particle in said plurality of electrorotation units; contacting said coated particles with said biological sample; applying an electrical signal to said electrorotation units; measuring the rotation of said coated particles; and determining the identity or concentration of said molecule in said biological sample by comparing the rotation of coated particles contacted with said biological sample with coated particles that have not been contacted with said biological sample.
- 31. The method of claim 30, wherein said detection reagent is selected from the group consisting of a dye, an antibody, and a ligand.
Priority Claims (2)
Number |
Date |
Country |
Kind |
00104350.1 |
Mar 2000 |
CN |
|
00124086.2 |
Aug 2000 |
CN |
|
RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This application is a divisional of and claims priority to U.S. application Ser. No. 09/643,362 filed Aug. 22, 2000, which claims priority under 35 U.S.C. §119(a) to Chinese Application Number 00104350.1, entitled APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR HIGH THROUGHPUT ELECTROROTATION ANALYSIS, filed on Mar. 15, 2000 and Chinese Application Number 00124086.2, entitled APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR HIGH THROUGHPUT ELECTROROTATION ANALYSIS, filed on Aug. 18, 2000, all of which are hereby expressly incorporated by reference in their entireties.
Divisions (1)
|
Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
09643362 |
Aug 2000 |
US |
Child |
10216003 |
Aug 2002 |
US |