FIG. 1.

Microfluidic device design. The Vortex HE device has 8 reservoirs in series and 8 in parallel. (a) Initially the red blood cells (RBCs), white blood cells (WBCs), and CTCs are distributed throughout the channel cross-section. (b) After traveling approximately 500 μm, the larger cells (CTCs) that experience higher inertial lift force migrate towards the channel walls. (c) The larger CTCs located near the wall experience enough lift force to enter the reservoir and remain stably trapped, while WBCs and RBCs either do not enter the reservoirs or do not remain trapped and return to the main flow.