High-throughput microfluidic single-cell analysis using bioimpedance and dielectric spectroscopy to gain insights into sub-cellular structure and mech

This project combines two different platforms of expertise across disciplines to establish a new transformative technology (theme 1) for rapid and potentially low-cost automated cell analysis.

At Manchester we are actively researching bioimpedance spectroscopy to support food production and precision agriculture, for example our leading work on factory-deployable non-contact induction systems to measure fruit ripening, damage, bruising, and quality control. This new international collaboration with Melbourne's expertise in microfluidic instrumentation opens an exciting avenue where we can potentially analyse bioimpedance at the cellular level.

The future prospect is a class of portable desktop or 'lab-in-the-field' instruments capable of simple cellular analysis - cell-sizes, cell-counting, integrity, identification, etc - at a relatively low-cost. This could enable a range of new applications across the grand challenges identified by BBSRC, from affordable human, animal, and plant health solutions to process control in biobased industrial processes, previously out of reach due to cost or facility access.