Henslee Lab

The Henslee Lab at Wake Forest University seeks to understand how electrokinetic properties, dielectrophoretic spectra and zeta-potential can provide label-free, rapid, low cost and high-resolution cell monitoring. Our research investigates electrophysiology in a number of cell applications including cancer, malaria and anemia. We developed the 3DEP system, capable of automatically measuring electrophysiologic properties of ~20,000 cells in about 10 seconds. 3DEP analysis provides measurement of three key properties: membrane conductance (GEFF), membrane capacitance (CEFF), and cytoplasm conductivity (σcyt).

Approaches

Dielectrophoresis

Dielectrophorersis (DEP) is an electrokinetic technique that uses a non-uniform alternating current (AC) to induce cellular motions that are dependent on both AC field frequency and the cellular electrical properties. The 3DEP makes it possible to measure the polarizability of cells by monitoring the evolution of optical intensity passing through each chip well. Each resulting 3DEP spectrum is a relative DEP force spectrum and relates the CMF to the light intensity measured in each well through a mathematical factor that remains unchanged during the course of the DEP experiment.

Zeta Potential

Zeta analyzers measure the zeta potential (ζ-potential) which is an electrochemical property of cells in suspension typically quantified by an electrophoretic light scattering technique, quantifying macromolecules moving under the influence of an applied electric field. This is used to quantify the electrostatic charge present on the cell surface.

Microscopy

Our research involves taking brightfield and fluorescent images of cells and using a high-resolution scanning electron microscope (SEM) to probe cell morphology.

Tune into Professor Henslee's Walk with WFU President Wente:

Publications

Hughes, M.P., Kruchek, E.J., Beale, A.D., Kitcatt, S.J., Qureshi, S., Trott, Z.P., Charbonnel, O., Agbaje, P.A., Henslee, E.A.*, Dorey, R.A., Lewis, R., and Labeed, F.H. Vm-related extracellular potentials observed in red blood cells. Scientific Reports, 11(1), 9/2021. doi:10.1038/s41598-021-98102-9.

Henslee, E.A., Lowman, L., Gross, M.D. and McCauley, A.K. Student Motivation and Self-efficacy in Entrepreneurial-minded Learning (EML): What These Mean for Diversity and Inclusion in Engineering Classrooms. In 2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access. 7/2021.

Henslee, E.A., Luthy, K., Crowe, W.N. and Gray, L.J. Lab Every Day!! Lab Every Day??* &%# ing Lab Every Day!? Examining Student Attitudes in a Core Engineering Course Using Hands-on Learning Every Day of Class. In 2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access. 7/2021.

Matta, C., Lewis, R., Fellows, C., Diszhazi, G., Almassy, J., Miosge, N., Dixon, J., Uribe, M.C., May, S., Poliska, S., Barrett‐Jolley, R., Henslee, E.A., Labeed, F., Hughes, M., and Mobasheri, A. Transcriptome‐based screening of ion channels and transporters in a migratory chondroprogenitor cell line isolated from late‐stage osteoarthritic cartilage. Journal of Cellular Physiology. 5/2021. doi: 10.1002/jcp.30413.

Erin A. Henslee. Dielectrophoresis in cell characterization, Electrophoresis, 7/ 2020.

Henslee, Erin A., Carina M. Dunlop, Christine M. de Mel, Emily A. Carter, Rula G. Abdallat, Patrizia Camelliti, and Fatima H. Labeed. DEP-Dots for 3D cell culture: low-cost, high-repeatability, effective 3D cell culture in multiple gel systems. Scientific Reports, 10(1), 9/2020.

Kai F Hoettges+, Erin A. Henslee+, Ruth M. Torcal Serrano, Rita I Jabr, Rula G. Abdallat, Andrew D. Beale Abdul Waheed, Patrizia Camelliti, Christopher H. Fry, Daan R. van der Veen, Fatima H. Labeed, Michael P. Hughes. Ten–Second Electrophysiology: Evaluation of the 3DEP Platform for high-speed, high-accuracy cell analysis, Scientific Reports, 12/2019.
+These authors contributed equally

Andrew D. Beale, Emily Kruchek, Stephen J. Kitcatt, Erin A Henslee, Jack, S.W. Parry, Gabriella Braun, Rita I. Jabr, Malcolm von Schantz, John S. O’Neill, Fatima H. Labeed, Casein Kinase 1 Underlies Temperature Compensation of Circadian Rhythms in Human Red Blood Cells. J Biol Rythms, 2019, doi: 10.1177/0748730419836370

Erin A. Henslee, Priya Crosby, Stephen J. Kitcatt, Jack S. W. Parry, Andrea Bernardini, Rula G. Abdallat, Gabriella Braun, Henry O. Fatoyinbo, Esther J. Harrison, Kai F. Hoettges, Akhilesh B. Reddy, Rita I. Jabr, Malcolm von Schantz, John S. O’Neill, Fatima H. Labeed, Rhythmic K+ transport regulates the circadian clock in human red blood cells. Nature Communications, 2017, doi:10.1038/s41467-017-02161-4.

Shabnam A. Faraghat, Kai F. Hoettges, Max K. Steinbach, Daan van der Veen, William J. Brackenbury, Erin A. Henslee Fatima H. Labeed, Michael P. Hughes1, High-Throughput, Low-Loss, Low-Cost and Label-Free Cell Separation using Electrophysiology Activated Cell Enrichment (EPACE). PNAS, 2017, doi:10.1073/pnas.1700773114.

Erin A. Henslee, Ruth M .Torcal-Serrano, Fatima H. Labeed, Rita I. Jabr, Christopher H. Fry, Michael P. Hughes, Kai F. Hoettges. Accurate quantification of apoptosis progression and toxicity using a dielectrophoretic approach. Analyst, 2016, 141, pp. 6408-6415.

Michael B. Sano, Erin A. Henslee, Eva Schmelz, and Rafael V. Davalos, Contactless Dielectrophoretic Spectroscopy: Examination of the Dielectric Properties of Cells Found in Blood, Special Issue on Miniaturization, 2011, 32(22), 3164-3171.

Erin A. Henslee, Michael B. Sano, Andrea D. Rojas, Eva M. Schmelz and Rafael V. Davalos, Selective Concentration of Human Cancer Cells using Contactless Dielectrophoresis (cDEP), Electrophoresis, 32(8), 2523-2529, 2011.

Hadi Shafiee, Michael B. Sano, Erin A. Henslee, John L. Caldwell and Rafael V. Davalos, Selective isolation of live/dead cells using contactless dielectrophoresis (cDEP), Lab on a Chip, 2010, 10, 438-445.