Acoustofluidic scanning fluorescence nanoscopy with a large field of view

Large-field nanoscale fluorescence imaging is invaluable for many applications,such as imaging subcellular structures,visualizing protein interactions,and high-resolution tissue imaging.Unfortunately,conventional fluorescence microscopy requires a trade-off between resolution and field of view due to the nature of the optics used to form the image.To overcome this barrier,we developed an acoustofluidic scanning fluorescence nanoscope that simultaneously achieves superior resolution,a large field of view,and strong fluorescent signals.The acoustofluidic scanning fluorescence nanoscope utilizes the superresolution capabilities of microspheres that are controlled by a programmable acoustofluidic device for rapid fluorescence enhancement and imaging.The acoustofluidic scanning fluorescence nanoscope resolves structures that cannot be resolved with conventional fluorescence microscopes with the same objective lens and enhances the fluorescent signal by a factor of~5 without altering the field of view of the image.The improved resolution realized with enhanced fluorescent signals and the large field of view achieved via acoustofluidic scanning fluorescence nanoscopy provides a powerful tool for versatile nanoscale fluorescence imaging for researchers in the fields of medicine,biology,biophysics,and biomedical engineering.

An acoustofluidic device for the automated separation of platelet-reduced plasma from whole blood

Separating plasma from whole blood is an important sample processing technique required for fundamental biomedical research,medical diagnostics,and therapeutic applications.Traditional protocols for plasma isolation require multiple centrifugation steps or multiunit microfluidic processing to sequentially remove large red blood cells(RBCs)and white blood cells(WBCs),followed by the removal of small platelets.Here,we present an acoustofluidic platform capable of efficiently removing RBCs,WBCs,and platelets from whole blood in a single step.By leveraging differences in the acoustic impedances of fluids,our device generates significantly greater forces on suspended particles than conventional microfluidic approaches,enabling the removal of both large blood cells and smaller platelets in a single unit.As a result,undiluted human whole blood can be processed by our device to remove both blood cells and platelets(>90%)at low voltages(25 Vpp).The ability to successfully remove blood cells and platelets from plasma without altering the properties of the proteins and antibodies present creates numerous potential applications for our platform in biomedical research,as well as plasma-based diagnostics and therapeutics.Furthermore,the microfluidic nature of our device offers advantages such as portability,cost efficiency,and the ability to process small-volume samples.