Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Johns Hopkins University have developed a handheld device that collects living cells from targeted locations on excised tissue using a 3D printed microfluidic channel. The team, led by MIT Professor Kripa Varanasi, described the system in the journal Device and tested it on fresh human fallopian-tube samples for ovarian cancer research.

Many cases of high-grade serous ovarian cancer, the most common type, originate in the fallopian tubes, where precursor lesions can be microscopic and hard to detect. In standard pathology, removed tubes are placed in a chemical preservative and cut into sections for examination, leaving the cells dead and unable to be cultured.

“It’s very time-consuming and destructive to the cells,” said Varanasi. “We wanted to bring new capabilities to pathology, so we can not only see what these cells look like, but also collect them alive and study how they behave.”

The device holds a microfluidic channel against the tissue while a syringe drives fluid through it, applying force parallel to the surface to detach living cells from small sections. The 3D printed unit forms a vacuum seal and confines liquid flow to a small region, where the resulting shear stress releases the cells.

“We came up with this device where one syringe creates a vacuum that holds it against the tissue, and a second syringe pushes liquid through it,” said Bert Vandereydt, a postdoctoral researcher at MIT and co-first author of the study. “The vacuum creates a seal, so nothing leaks, and then we locally apply what is basically a microfluidic chip on the tissue that gently shears the cells off.”

Tests on human tissue

The researchers compared the method with other cell collection workflows and found that cells collected with the device stayed viable and grew in culture more readily than cells detached conventionally. Using fresh fallopian-tube samples supplied by Johns Hopkins, the team grew organoids from the collected cells before shipping samples back for conventional pathology.

The researchers planned to begin with tissue already removed from the body, an easier route to regulatory approval, before eventually using the device to swab samples inside patients.