Researchers at Virginia Tech have developed a groundbreaking tool that allows scientists to manipulate cells and microparticles, including harmful viruses like COVID-19, without physically touching them. This novel technique, combining acoustic waves and electric fields, offers unprecedented opportunities for diagnosing, treating, and preventing the spread of deadly diseases.
Untouching the Untouchable
Ironically, it is in the study of such harmful pathogens — whether cancer cells which have developed metastatic properties or viruses like SARS-CoV-2 that cause COVID-19 — that arguably we have to be at our most cautious. Especially with COVID, the virus is not robust at living on surfaces. This is important, because in order to see a live virus and manipulate it further without squashing our miniscule subjects, how we go about doing so without making contact with them can help as they contort, jump and die — only then become immortal on tubes.
Virginia Tech Assistant Professor Zhenhua Tian Zhenhua Tian, assistant professor at Virginia Tech To this end, Tian and his collaborators have designed a novel microscopic tool capable of tightly trapping small particles — such as the tiny components found in virus particles — through a non-contact mechanism. This innovative method brings together sound waves and electric fields, which results in the first application that can be directly used in disease diagnosis, therapy, and prevention.
The Science Behind The Discovery
The novelty in Tian’s method is that it combines two kinds of energy for this amazing task. First is coherent acoustics or standing wave via out-of-range human sound frequency. The wave is designed to move across the planar surfaces (like chips of silicon with tiny acoustic emitters, up for energy), when coming to generate a grid-like pattern of valleys where energy no, this volume surface called Acoustic wells.
These acoustic wells act as traps, wherein microparticles like virus particles once they interact with these acoustic wells are trapped and start settling towards the center where they get protected from external influences. To move these particles in the acoustic wells, the researchers then bring in the second type of energy — electrical fields.
The researchers draw on an electrical field to maneuver the tiny bits into a designated area in the well that they turn into their lab-on-a-chip system. The force induced by the electric field, instead of being immobilized at the center, allows these particles to move around within the well’s center. What is more — when two acoustic waves intersect, the cross-intersection of these several wells give you this almost invisible egg carton-like pattern. This could form a grid in which the particles would be captured together but each one of them can be independently manipulated by means of optical tweezers, facilitating complex trajectories and motions.
Conclusion
The novel tool created by the researchers at Virginia Tech will change the way scientists study and manipulate cells and microparticles, which includes viruses that are deadly as COVID-19. The new technique provides novel avenues for research on the mechanisms of diseases, how treatments can be made more efficient and valid and how the breeding of pests that carry devastating pathogens can be stopped. It is an intriguing vision that could be a seminal development in the study of micro-organisms and one with potentially wide-reaching impacts on how we undertake one of the most stubborn battles against health issues.
