Playing the violin: A novel versatile acoustic tweezer for single cell handling based on multimodal actuation.

The project aims to develop a novel multiplex acoustic cell and particle manipulation platform. The goal is to apply many different vibration modes, as opposed to single modes in current state-of-the-art acoustic micromanipulators, to gain additional degrees of freedom for the manipulation. Ideally, complete, and independent control over the paths and positions of many different cells is achieved at single cell resolution. The project requires the development of fundamental theory, an experimental setup, and a control algorithm. To save resources and gain a deep understanding the algorithm and manipulation chamber will be developed and tested in silico before moving to experiments. The first experiments will be performed in centimetre scale manipulation chambers, whereafter the manipulation chamber will be scaled down to millimetres. Finally, unit operations relevant in cell biology and clinical applications will be carried out in the newly developed acoustic tweezer in experiments