Speaker
Description
This work presents a systematic investigation into how particle shape and softness—specifically in bacterial samples—affect sorting in deterministic lateral displacement (DLD) microfluidic devices. While previous studies have qualitatively observed the impact of non-spherical shapes, we provide a quantitative, two-level experimental analysis using shape-defined particles and high-speed imaging. To complement the experiments, we used finite-element simulations to model solid particles with defined density and velocity, examining their interaction with the flow regime and resulting shear stress.
A key finding is that non-spherical particles do not sort as expected, even when their longest axis matches that of a spherical particle, due to rotational dynamics altering their effective size. We also show that soft, non-spherical bacterial chains and clusters deform dynamically during sorting, affecting their trajectory between DLD posts and their sorting result.
| Broad physics domain | Biophysics |
|---|---|
| AI/ML technique(s) to be presented | Image recognition |
