Methods and means for manipulating particles

1. A method of manipulating flowing particles, comprising steps of:

a) providing fluid channels in which a laminar flow of suspended particles moving at constant speed is to be sorted;

b) providing region of interest in the fluid channels via which the flow of particles pass;

c) based on methodology of capturing image of the flow of particles, detecting individual first order motions of flowing particles and tracking movement of multiple particles of the flowing particles only in the region of interest by using imaging processing technique suiting capacity of optical trapping means;

d) based on results from image processing in the step c), determining the presence of at least one target particle from the flow of particles;

e) based on results from image processing in the step d), labeling center position of the at least one target particle with an index, the index configured for use in tracking movement of multiple particles of flowing particles in comparison with previous frame; and

f) triggering the generation of an optical trapping means and changing the course of the at least one target particle transversely from a first flow stream to a second flow stream by the optical trapping means;

wherein the method further comprises steps of:

i) recording center position of the at least one target particle as current image frame by way of the index; and

ii) step f), changing the course of the at least one target particle by a series of successive steps, and in each of the successive steps the optical trapping means is adapted to move the at least one target particle by a distance equal to the radius of the target particle and perpendicular to the laminar flow;

wherein the velocity of the optical trap and the velocity of the laminar flow in the direction of the laminar flow along branching junction of the fluid channels are substantially the same; and

wherein the optical trapping means includes at least one optical trap, and the number of optical traps employed corresponds to the number of detected target particles in the region of interest and the capacity of the optical trapping means.

2. A method as claimed in claim 1 , comprising moving the at least one target particle to a target location by the optical trap.

3. A method as claimed in claim 2 , comprising determining whether the at least one target particle has been moved to the target location, and if the at least one target particle has been moved to the target location the optical trapping means is released from the target particle, and if the at least one target particle has not been moved to the target location data associated with current position of the target particle(s) is updated within a database.

4. A method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein, in step (e), comprising steps of:

(i) calculating the distance between the at least one target particle in current image frame and a respective labeled particle in previous image frame;

(ii) ascertaining whether the distance in step (i)) is less than a predefined distance; and

(iii) assigning same label of the respective labeled particle for the at least one target particle in current frame if the distance in step (ii) is less than the predefined distance; or assigning new label for the at least one target particle in current frame if the distance in step (ii) is equal or greater than the predefined distance.

5. A method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein, in step c), the image processing technique is adapted to identify particles based on intrinsic features such as morphology and sizes of the particles.

6. A method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein, in step c), the image processing technique is adapted to identify particles based on extrinsic features such as fluorescence labeling and tagging on the particles.

7. A method as claimed in claim 1 , comprising a step of measuring the velocity of the at least one target particle in the laminar flow.

8. A method as claimed in claim 1 , comprising a step of providing a branching junction in the fluid channels, wherein the at least one optical trap is movable or moves diagonally along the branching junction for translating the at least one target cell into a target channel of the fluid channels.

9. A system for sorting target particles from a flow of particles, comprising:

a) a microscope;

b) a light source;

c) a CCD camera;

d) microfluidic chip device with microfluidic channels;

e) a detection apparatus for detecting the target particles with predefined specific features;

f) a response generating apparatus adapted to generate a signal in response to the detection of the target particles only in a region of interest; and

g) an optical tweezing system for controlling movement of optical traps, said optical tweezing system is operably linked to the response signal;

wherein the detection apparatus includes means for labelling the target particles with a reference index for comparison; and

wherein the optical tweezing system includes at least one optical trap, and the number of optical traps employed corresponds to the number of detected target particles in the region of interest and the capacity of the optical trapping means.

10. An apparatus as claimed in claim 9 , wherein the microfluidic chip device includes a cover glass layer, a PDMS microfluidic chip layer and a fluid flow controller.

11. An apparatus as claimed in claim 10 , wherein the PDMS microfluidic chip layer is provided with a plurality of reservoirs and a plurality of the microfluidic channels.

12. The apparatus as defined in claim 10 , wherein said optical tweezing system includes holographic optical tweezers.

13. A method of manipulating flowing particles, comprising steps of:

a) providing fluid channels in which a laminar flow of suspended particles moving at constant speed is to be sorted;

b) providing region of interest in the fluid channels via which the flow of particles pass;

c) based on methodology of capturing image of the flow of particles, detecting individual first order motions of flowing particles and tracking movement of multiple particles of the flowing particles only in the region of interest by using imaging processing technique for suiting capacity of optical trapping means;

d) based on results from image processing in the step c), determining the presence of at least one target particle from the flow of particles;

e) based on results from image processing in the step d), labelling center position of the at least one target particle with a index, the index configured for tracking movement of multiple particles of the flowing particles in comparison of previous frame; and

f) triggering the generation of the optical trapping means and changing the course of the at least one target particle transversely from a first flow stream to a second flow stream by the optical trapping means;

wherein the optical trapping means includes at least one optical trap, and the number of optical traps employed corresponds to the number of detected target particles in the region of interest and the capacity of the optical trapping means.