Cancer researchers know that individual tumor cells can reveal important information about how an individual’s cancer develops and spreads and how it might be best treated. Yet conventional methods of tumor analysis rely on the extraction of nucleic acids from bulk tissue samples and result in low-resolution genetic readouts. The poor quality of these results can even lead to misdiagnosis.

Cel Welch, a PhD candidate in the lab of engineering professor Anubhav Tripathi, has developed a way to isolate high-quality, intact single cells from biopsied cancer tissue within minutes. The individual cells can be used for single-cell RNA sequencing, which is especially useful in detecting rare mutations.

The process uses electric field fluctuations rather than enzymes to separate cells from one another. The biopsied tissue is placed in a liquid-filled receptacle between two parallel plate electrodes. Electric field fluctuations applied to the liquid create opposing forces, which cause the tissue cells to move first in one direction and then in the opposite direction until they separate from one another.

The new electric field method is superior to standard isolation methods in terms of labor, cost, and efficiency and was described in June 2022 in Scientific Reports. Welch has been named to Forbes’s 2023 30 Under 30 list in science.