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Impedance Measurements of Cells

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Encyclopedia of Microfluidics and Nanofluidics
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Synonyms

Dielectric spectroscopy; Single-cell impedance spectroscopy

Definition

Impedance measurements are performed by applying an AC excitation voltage to an unknown system while measuring the current. The ratio of the excitation voltage to the current gives the complex impedance of the system. Impedance measurements of cells provide data on the intrinsic dielectric properties of the cells.

Overview

A biological cell is the basic structural and functional unit of all living organisms, often called the building block of life. Working at the cellular level is of fundamental importance for biomedical and clinical applications.

Cellular analysis requires a combination of biophysical and technological approaches, including counting, manipulation (trapping/focusing/sorting/rotating), and identification (staining/labeling) of cells. Traditional analysis is performed with bulk techniques, which are well established. However, measurements on large populations of cells only provide...

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Correspondence to Tao Sun .

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© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media New York

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Sun, T., Morgan, H. (2014). Impedance Measurements of Cells. In: Li, D. (eds) Encyclopedia of Microfluidics and Nanofluidics. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27758-0_685-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27758-0_685-2

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  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-27758-0

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