  The effects of cell size and deformability on the lateral migration and
deformation of living cells flowing through a rectangular microchannel has been
numerically investigated and compared with the inertial-microfluidics data on
detection and separation of cells. The results of this work indicate that the
cells move closer to the centerline if they are bigger and/or more deformable
and that their equilibrium position is largely determined by the solvent
(cytosol) viscosity, which is much less than the polymer (cytoskeleton)
viscosity measured in most rheological systems. Simulations also suggest that
decreasing channel dimensions leads to larger differences in equilibrium
position for particles of different viscoelastic properties, giving design
guidance for the next generation of microfluidic cell separation chips.
