When the human body heals a wound, renews the intestinal lining, or makes new blood cells, it is using its reserve unit: stem cells. These cells can renew themselves and, when needed, become more specialized cells. In humans, stem cells are found in many tissues, including bone marrow, skin, the gut, and fat. They act as an internal repair system, helping replace damaged cells after injury or disease. [1,2]

But this repair reserve is not limitless. In autoimmune disease, the immune system mistakenly attacks the body’s own tissues. When inflammation becomes chronic, the repair crew is asked to work almost nonstop. Research shows that this pressure can reduce stem-cell regenerative capacity and make their niche less supportive. Senescent mesenchymal stromal cells can also help sustain inflammation. Autoimmunity is therefore not only about misdirected immunity; it is also about how well the body preserves its cellular reserve. [3,8,9,10]

Several diseases make this easy to picture. Psoriasis is a chronic immune-mediated skin disease often discussed alongside autoimmune disorders: skin cells multiply too quickly, forming scaly inflamed plaques, and the disease usually moves through flares and quieter periods. Rheumatoid arthritis causes joint pain, swelling, morning stiffness, and flare-ups; if uncontrolled, it can damage joints and lead to disability. In type 1 diabetes, the immune system destroys the insulin-producing beta cells of the pancreas, so insulin is needed every day. In Crohn’s disease, an abnormal immune reaction inflames the digestive tract; the illness often begins gradually, may worsen over time, and is marked by flares and remissions. [4,5,6,7]

This raises a practical question: if a stem-cell population is highly mixed, how do we select the cells most valuable for therapy? Traditional methods such as FACS are extremely powerful for analysis because they label cells with fluorescent tags and sort them according to specific markers. But for fragile therapeutic cells, that route is not always ideal: high pressure can damage sensitive cells, preparation can be stressful, and some cells are lost along the way. It is excellent when the goal is to identify what is in a sample, but not always the best route if we want to use those same living cells in treatment. [11,12]

This is where dielectrophoresis, or DEP, comes in. In simple terms, it is the motion of polarizable particles in a non-uniform electric field. Cells are not identical: their membranes, cytoplasm, size, water content, and internal organization differ, so they respond differently in a changing field. DEP does not read a cell’s passport or measure literal age; it reads an electrical phenotype that can reflect biological state. Studies show that DEP can distinguish stem cells from more differentiated descendants, detect early changes during differentiation, and characterize cells that have aged in culture. [13,14,15]

Now picture an army. In one column stand young and strong soldiers, old and tired ones, soldiers who still look young but are already close to dropping out, and mannequins – non-cellular debris. A FACS-like approach would be to put glowing vests on the soldiers and send them through a loud checkpoint. A DEP approach is more like a smart fortress corridor with a rhythmic test: it does not ask for a name or a uniform color, but watches how each soldier responds to changing commands. Those whose physical properties fit the desired profile are gently pulled into a side niche and retained, while the rest flow onward. Those selected cells can then be expanded for a few passages. Umbilical cord blood is a clinically useful source of stem and progenitor cells, but smarter selection also invites the use of the patient’s own adipose tissue as an accessible autologous cell source from which the most functional cells can be chosen. That is the direction DEPCELL describes publicly: validating a dielectrophoresis-based system to isolate stem-cell populations with enhanced therapeutic potential and move research toward more accessible cell therapies. [16,17,18]

Selected sources

1. NIH Stem Cell Information. Stem Cell Basics.
2. MSD Manual Consumer Version. Stem Cells and Tissue Engineering.
3. MedlinePlus. Autoimmune Diseases.
4. National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS). Psoriasis Symptoms, Causes, & Risk Factors.
5. National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS). Rheumatoid Arthritis Symptoms, Causes, & Risk Factors.
6. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK). Type 1 Diabetes.
7. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK). Definition & Facts for Crohn’s Disease.
8. Pietras EM. Inflammation: a key regulator of hematopoietic stem cell fate in health and disease.
9. Bogeska R. et al. Inflammatory exposure drives long-lived impairment of hematopoietic stem cell self-renewal activity and accelerated aging. Cell Stem Cell, 2022.
10. Lee BC, Yu KR. Impact of mesenchymal stem cell senescence on inflammaging. BMB Reports, 2020.
11. Telford WG. Flow cytometry and cell sorting. Frontiers in Medicine, 2023.
12. Zhu B, Murthy SK. Stem Cell Separation Technologies. Current Opinion in Chemical Engineering, 2013.
13. Abd Rahman N. et al. Dielectrophoresis for Biomedical Sciences Applications. Sensors, 2017.
14. Tivig I. et al. Early differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells is reflected in their dielectrophoretic behavior. Scientific Reports, 2024.
15. Simpkins LLC. et al. Electrical Phenotyping of Aged Human Mesenchymal Stem Cells. Micromachines, 2025.
16. Broxmeyer HE. Cord blood hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. StemBook / NCBI Bookshelf.
17. Al-Ghadban SA. et al. Adipose Stem Cells in Regenerative Medicine: Looking Forward. Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology, 2022.
18. DEPCELL official website: project overview and About page (public project description, accessed April 2026).