Generating multifunctional acoustic tweezers in Petri dishes for contactless, precise manipulation of bioparticles

Abstract

Acoustic tweezers are a promising technology for the biocompatible, precise manipulation of delicate bioparticles ranging from nanometer-sized exosomes to millimeter-sized zebrafish larva. However, their widespread usage is hindered by their low compatibility with the workflows in biological laboratories. Here, we present multifunctional acoustic tweezers that can manipulate bioparticles in a disposable Petri dish. Various functionalities including cell patterning, tissue engineering, concentrating particles, translating cells, stimulating cells, and cell lysis are demonstrated. Moreover, leaky surface acoustic wave–based holography is achieved by encoding required phases in electrode profiles of interdigitated transducers. This overcomes the frequency and resolution limits of previous holographic techniques to control three-dimensional acoustic beams in microscale. This study presents a favorable technique for noncontact and label-free manipulation of bioparticles in commonly used Petri dishes. It can be readily adopted by the biological and medical communities for cell studies, tissue generation, and regenerative medicine.