I present multimodal wide-field interferometric microscopy platform for label-free 3-D imaging of live cells during fast flow. Using holographic optical tweezers, multiple cells can be optically trapped and rapidity rotated on all axes, while acquired using an external off-axis wide-field interferometric module developed in our lab. The interferometric projections are rapidly processed into the 3-D refractive-index profile of the cells using a tomographic phase microscopy algorithms that take into consideration optical diffraction effects. The algorithms for the 3-D refractive-index reconstruction, and for calculating various morphological parameters that should serve for online sorting of cells, are efficiently implemented in a nearly real-time manner. The potential of this new high-throughput imaging technique is for label-free image analysis and sorting of cells during flow, to substitute current cell sorting devices, which are based on external labeling that eventually damages the cell sample.
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