Microfluidic Self-Sorting of Mammalian Cells to Achieve Cell Cycle

Jan 29, 2009 - Cell cycle studies for examining regulatory mechanisms and progression invariably require synchronization of cell cultures at a specifi...
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Anal. Chem. 2009, 81, 1964–1968

Microfluidic Self-Sorting of Mammalian Cells to Achieve Cell Cycle Synchrony by Hydrophoresis Sungyoung Choi, Seungjeong Song, Chulhee Choi, and Je-Kyun Park* Department of Bio and Brain Engineering, College of Life Science and Bioengineering, KAIST, 335 Gwahangno, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 305-701, Republic of Korea Cell cycle studies for examining regulatory mechanisms and progression invariably require synchronization of cell cultures at a specific phase of the cell cycle. Current implementations to produce synchronous cell populations, however, tend to perturb normal cellular progression and metabolism and typically require complex, timeconsuming preparations. Thus, it is challenging for the development of a simple, noninvasive, and effective means for cell cycle synchronization. We demonstrate the use of hydrophoretic size separation to sort cells in target phases of the cell cycle entirely based on a hydrodynamic principle. With this method, we found that there is a linear relationship between a cell’s size and its position distribution in the hydrophoretic device. We also demonstrate the robustness of the hydrophoretic method for practical applications by sorting cells in the G0/G1 and G2/M phases out of the original, asynchronous cells with a high level of synchrony of 95.5% and 85.2%, respectively. These results show that the hydrophoretic size separation can be used in order to collect cells at the same phase of the cell cycle in a gentle, noninvasive way. Cell cycle synchronization is commonly performed in order to collect cells at the same phase of the cell cycle. The cell cycle is the repeated series of events that consist of four distinct phases: G1 (G indicating growth), S (S indicating DNA synthesis), G2, and M (M indicating mitosis) phases. The regulatory factors of the cell cycle are strongly associated with programmed cell death to prevent uncontrolled cell division and repairing genetic damages, thereby any abnormal regulation of the cell cycle is associated commonly with tumor progression.1-3 The development of gentle, noninvasive methods for cell synchrony is essential to understand the physiological roles of regulatory molecules involved in each phase of the cell cycle and their relationship with oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes for continued advancement in the fields of cell cycle regulation and cancer. Synchronization methods can be categorized into chemical interference and physical separation. Several chemical methods * To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: [email protected]. Phone: +82-42-350-4315. Fax: +82-42-350-4310. (1) Collins, K.; Jacks, T.; Pavletich, N. P. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 1997, 94, 2776–2778. (2) Garrett, M. D. Curr. Sci. 2001, 81, 515–522. (3) Andersen, J. L.; DeHart, J. L.; Zimmerman, E. S.; Ardon, O.; Kim, B.; Jacquot, G.; Benichou, S.; Planelles, V. PLoS Pathog. 2006, 2, 1106–1119.

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called “whole-culture synchronization” have been used to synchronize cell cultures by halting the cell cycle at a specific phase.4-8 For example, aphidicolin blocks the cell cycle at the G1 phase by inhibiting DNA polymerization. Treatment with nocodazole halts cells in the M phase by interfering with the polymerization of microtubules and thereby preventing the formation of metaphase spindles. These batch treatments allow almost the entire cell population to be transformed into a synchronized cohort. However, the major disadvantage of these chemical methods is that normal cellular progression and metabolism are often disrupted by inhibiting DNA synthesis and microtubule polymerization.9 Physical separation methods are to select cells at a specific stage of the cell cycle from the original, asynchronous cell population typically by using the difference of nucleus size or cell mass according to cell-cycle phases, obtaining unperturbed synchronous cell cultures. Fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) is routinely used to measure and sort cells at a specific phase of the cell cycle by using both fluorescent labels and light scattering.10 Although this method provides rapid quantitative information about DNA ploidy and cell cycle distribution, it is costly, mechanically complex, and requires a trained operator. The cell size-cycle relationship also allows cell cycle synchronization by size separation of cells in different phases. Many separation methods enable size separation by utilizing physical forces or hydrodynamic phenomena and can be used to sort cells by size.11-14 In particular, centrifugal elutriation has been used for cell cycle synchronization through balancing between the elutriation flow and the centrifugal force against the flow direction.15,16 (4) Kumagai-Sano, F.; Hayashi, T.; Sano, T.; Hasezawa, S. Nat. Protoc. 2006, 1, 2621–2627. (5) Poxleitner, M. K.; Dawson, S. C.; Cande, W. Z. Eukaryotic Cell 2008, 7, 569–574. (6) Uzbekov, R.; Chartrain, I.; Philippe, M.; Arlot-Bonnemains, Y. Exp. Cell Res. 1998, 242, 60–68. (7) Khammanit, R.; Chantakru, S.; Kitiyanant, Y.; Saikhun, J. Theriogenology 2008, 70, 27–34. (8) Keyomarsi, K. Methods Cell Sci. 1996, 18, 109–114. (9) Jackowski, S. J. Biol. Chem. 1996, 271, 20219–20222. (10) Liliensiek, S. J.; Schell, K.; Howard, E.; Nealey, P.; Murphy, C. J. Exp. Eye Res. 2006, 83, 61–68. (11) Pamme, N. Lab Chip 2007, 7, 1644–1659. (12) Toner, M.; Irimia, D. Annu. Rev. Biomed. Eng. 2005, 7, 77–103. (13) Duffy, C. F.; McEathron, A. A.; Arriaga, E. A. Electrophoresis 2002, 23, 2040–2047. (14) Lantz, A. W.; Bao, Y.; Armstrong, D. W. Anal. Chem. 2007, 79, 1720– 1724. (15) Heil, M. F.; Wu, J. M.; Chiao, J. W. Biochim. Biophys. Acta 1985, 845, 17–20. (16) Banfalvi, G. Nat. Protoc. 2008, 3, 663–673. 10.1021/ac8024575 CCC: $40.75  2009 American Chemical Society Published on Web 01/29/2009

Dielectrophoresis (DEP) has been recently employed for the selection of cells at a specific phase by exploiting the dependence of the DEP force on a particle volume.17 Although they showed impressive results, they require a complicated equipment setup of a centrifuge, rotor assembly, and separation- and elutriationchamber or relatively complex fabrication processes such as metalelectrode patterning. Thus, there is still a challenge for the development of a simple, low-cost, noninvasive, and effective method for cell cycle synchronization. In this study, we demonstrate the use of hydrophoretic size separation for the synchronization of mammalian cells that utilizes convective, rotational flows induced from regularly patterned anisotropic microfluidic obstacles without the need for electric or any physical fields.18 Its performance is characterized experimentally using standard microparticles and a pure and chemically interfered population of U937 cells (human leukemic monocyte lymphoma cell line). We also demonstrate the robustness of the hydrophoretic method for practical applications by sorting cells in the G0/G1 and G2/M phases out of original, asynchronous U937 cells. EXPERIMENTAL SECTION Device Design and Fabrication. Photoresist (PR) molds for the hydrophoretic device incorporating 200 anisotropic microfluidic obstacles and inlet/outlet microchannels were defined on a silicon wafer by using two-step photolithography. Experimentally, we have found that more than 120 obstacles are required for the complete ordering of beads ranged from 520 nm to 15 µm. To ensure the complete ordering of U937 cells, we used the hydrophoretic device with 200 obstacles. The first and second layers of the PR molds define the channel structures and the obstacles, respectively. For the first-step lithography, a 24 µm layer of SU8 2010 PR (Microchem Corp., MA) was spin-coated on a 4 in. silicon wafer and then exposed to UV light through a photomask. In the second-step, a 46 µm layer of SU8 3025 PR (Microchem Corp., MA) was spin-coated on the previously patterned PR mold and then exposed to UV light through the second photomask that was aligned with respect to the previously developed SU8 patterns. The device was microfabricated in poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) by using soft-lithography as shown in Figure 1, in which the channel width Wch was 50 µm, the channel height Hch ) 46 µm, the gap height of the obstacles Hob ) 24 µm, the slanting angle of the obstacles θ ) 10°, the obstacle thickness Lob ) 20 µm, and the pitch distance between the obstacles Dob ) 30 µm. The PDMS microchannel was then irreversibly sealed by plasma activation on a glass slide. The deviations of all dimensions were less than 5%. Material Preparation. Polystyrene beads with diameters of 15 and 20 µm were purchased from Sigma-Aldrich (St. Louis, MO). The beads were prepared in 2% pluoronic F68 solution (SigmaAldrich) in a concentration of approximately 500 beads/µL and had a coefficient of variation of less than 5% for particle size. Synchronization experiments were performed using U937 cells (human leukemic monocyte lymphoma cell line). The cell line was cultured in RPMI 1640 medium (JBI, Korea) supplemented (17) Kim, U.; Shu, C. W.; Dane, K. Y.; Daugherty, P. S.; Wang, J. Y. J.; Soh, H. T. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 2007, 104, 20708–20712. (18) Choi, S.; Song, S.; Choi, C.; Park, J.-K. Anal. Chem. 2009, 81, 50–55.

Figure 1. Cell cycle synchronization by hydrophoretic size separation. (a) Schematic showing a hydrophoretic device with anisotropic microfluidic obstacles and its size separation of asynchronous cells. (b) Simulated streamlines in the device. The slanted groove patterns on the channel generate rotational flows by using a steady axial pressure gradient. Following these rotational flows, particles cross the channel and reach sidewall 1. The streamlines starting at sidewall 1 move upward, i.e., the stream 1, and suddenly traverse the channel as they reach around the bottom of the obstacles, i.e., stream 2. (c) The larger cells in the G2/M phase with a diameter that is similar to the obstacle gap will steer their position downward due to the particle-wall interaction. The cells thus follow stream 1 and stay at sidewall 1 without deviation. In contrast, the smaller cells in the G0/ G1 phase will deviate from sidewall 1 following stream 2. (d) A PDMS device consisting of a prefilter to block dust with a diameter over 30 µm, 200 anisotropic microfluidic obstacles, an expanded outlet region of 1 mm width, and two outlet reservoirs.

with 10% (v/v) heat-inactivated fetal bovine serum (Invitrogen, CA), penicillin G (100 U/mL), streptomycin (100 µg/mL), and L-glutamine (2 mM) at 37 °C in a humidified atmosphere containing 5% CO2 and 95% air. For synchronization experiments, U937 cells were centrifuged and resuspended in RPMI medium at a concentration of 1 000 cells/µL. Cell diameters range between 11 and 22 µm. To arrest U937 cells in the M phase, we treated the cells with 100 ng/mL nocodazole (SigmaAldrich) for 16 h. Computational Fluid Dynamics Simulation. The flow characteristics in the device were modeled by using a commercial computational fluid dynamics software (CFD-ACE+; ESI, Huntsville, AL). The channel for simulation is 50 µm wide (Wch) and 46 µm deep (Hch) with Hob ) 24 µm, θ ) 10°, Lob ) 20 µm, and Dob ) 30 µm (Figure 1). The total number of cells in the three-dimensional structured grid for the channel was 143 298. The upwind scheme is used in the conjugates gradient squared (CGS) and preconditioning (Pre) solvers for the velocity field, while the algebraic multigrid (AMG) solver is used for pressure correction. The applied flow rate was 4 µL/min along the flow direction (Figure 1b). Data Acquisition. The beads and cells were introduced into the hydrophoretic device using a syringe pump (Pump 11 Pico Plus; Harvard Apparatus, Inc., Holliston, MA) at a flow rate of 4 µL/min. They were imaged through a CCD camera (DS-2MBWc; Nikon, Tokyo, Japan) equipped in an inverted microscopy (TS100; Nikon). A commercial image analysis software, i-Solution (IMT i-Solution, Korea) was used to measure the lateral positions and areas of cells in the 1 mm wide outlet region of the device. This Analytical Chemistry, Vol. 81, No. 5, March 1, 2009

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program determines the positions and areas by the calibrated pixel information. The program measures the lines and closed areas drawn by users and converts their pixel information into metric information. Flow Cytometry. The cell synchrony was confirmed by using flow cytometry (BD LSR II System; BD Biosciences, CA). Control cells were harvested and fixed in 4% paraformaldehyde (SigmaAldrich) at room temperature for 30 min. Sorted cells by the hydrophoretic device were also mixed with 4% paraformaldehyde and fixed at room temperature for 30 min. The fixed cells were washed with 1× PBS and then incubated in 0.25 mL of 1× PBS containing 0.03% Triton X-100 (Sigma-Aldrich) and 80 µg/mL RNase (Solgent, Korea) at 37 °C for 30 min. A volume of propidium iodide (PI) solution (1 mg/mL in distilled water) of 12.5 µL was added to each tube and mixed gently. After cell staining at room temperature for 30 min, the cell cycle distribution was determined by the flow cytometry. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Synchronization Principle. Figure 1 shows the schematics of the hydrophoretic device and its size separation principle. It is composed of the slanted groove patterns on the straight channel, functioning as a motive power of transverse particle motions. The anisotropy of the slanted groove patterns generated rotational flows by using a steady axial pressure gradient (Figure 1 in the Supporting Information).19-22 Such convective vortices make cells move along the transverse direction. Thus, the cells migrate toward sidewall 1 following the rotational streams (Figure 1b). At that time, the cell motion is governed by the physical (steric) barrier of the anisotropic microfluidic obstacles as shown in Figure 1c. The cell-obstacle interaction deflects the large cells in the G2/M phase downward and makes the cells diffused out of the rotational streamlines. The cells thus follow stream 1 in Figure 1b and stay near sidewall 1 without deviation. In contrast, the smaller cells in the G0/G1 phase will deviate from sidewall 1 following stream 2 in Figure 1b, sorted from the larger cells in the G2/M phase. The height of the obstacle gap Hob is a design parameter that determines whether particles (D in diameter) assume hydrophoretic self-ordering/sorting by the steric hindrance mechanism. Experimentally, we have found that the obstacles of Hob e 2D hinder the rotational flows of particles and lead to hydrophoretic self-ordering.18 The ratio between the channel height Hch and the gap height Hob should be considered because the degree of the particle deflection is determined by the ratio and thereby by the induced pressure gradients. At Hch/Hob g 2, the magnitude of the pressure gradients is high enough to ensure hydrophoretic ordering.18 To ensure the hydrophoretic size separation of U937 cells whose diameters vary between 11 and 22 µm, we engineered the hydrophoretic device with Hob ) 24 µm and Hch ) 46 µm. Device Characterization with Standard Beads. The hydrophoretic microchannel (Hob ) 24 µm and Hch ) 46 µm) is designed so that cells whose diameters range between 11 and (19) Stroock, A. D.; Dertinger, S. K. W.; Ajdari, A.; Mezic´, I.; Stone, H. A.; Whitesides, G. M. Science 2002, 295, 647–651. (20) Choi, S.; Park, J.-K. Lab Chip 2007, 7, 890–897. (21) Choi, S.; Park, J.-K. Anal. Chem. 2008, 80, 3035–3039. (22) Choi, S.; Song, S.; Choi, C.; Park, J.-K. Small 2008, 4, 634–641.

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Figure 2. Size separation of the 15 and 20 µm beads. The optical micrographs (top and middle) and measured position profiles (bottom) show the separated streams of the beads in the 1 mm wide outlet region. The experiments were conducted in the same device, at the same flow rate of 4 µL/min without any alteration of the separation parameters.

22 µm assume hydrophoretic self-ordering/sorting. The sizeseparation performance of the hydrophoretic device is first characterized with polystyrene microparticles with diameters of 15 and 20 µm, to confirm whether the device follows the aforementioned design rules. The applied flow rate was 4 µL/ min. Figure 2 shows that the 15 and 20 µm beads completely maintain their distinct trajectories at the respective lateral positions of 587.9 ± 33.7 and 333.1 ± 18.1 µm in the 1 mm wide outlet region, satisfying the design rules. As shown in Figure 1c, the 20 µm beads with a diameter that is similar to the obstacle gap stay near sidewall 1 due to the particle-wall interaction, while the smaller 15 µm beads deviate from sidewall 1 following stream 2 in Figure 1b. The rotational streamlines and convective flow characteristics are not significantly affected by the operating flow speed.19-22 Thus, an increase of the operating flow speed would provide a significant increase in the separation throughput. However, this operational parameter must be considered in the practical point of view that flowing particles suspended in fluids are subjected to inertial lift forces such as shear-gradient and wall-induced lift forces. The particle Reynolds number Rep is defined as the ratio of the particle inertia to the viscous force; Rep ) (FD2U)/(µDh), where F is the fluid density, D is the particle diameter, U is the maximum fluid velocity, and µ is the dynamic fluid viscosity. Dh is the hydraulic diameter, defined as Dh ) 2wh/(w + h), where w and h are the width and height of the channel, respectively. At higher Rep of order 1, the inertial lift forces would affect particle behaviors even in the microchannels. For the flow rate of 4 µL/min, the particle Reynolds numbers are 0.21 and 0.38 for 15 and 20 µm beads, respectively. We have

Figure 3. Size separation of U937 cells. (a) Optical micrograph showing asynchronous, control cells distributed according to their size in the 1 mm wide outlet region. The applied flow rate is 4 µL/min. (b) Scatter plot of the lateral position in the 1 mm wide outlet region versus the area of the asynchronous cells. (c) Scatter plot of the lateral position in the 1 mm wide outlet region versus the area of nocodazoletreated cells. The horizontal and vertical dashed lines in parts b and c denote the mean values for the lateral position and cell area, respectively.

Figure 4. Sorting of U937 cells in G0/G1 and G2/M phases. (a) Histogram of the DNA content of control, unsorted cells. The initial asynchronous cells have a G0/G1 to G2/M ratio of 5.2:1. (b) Histogram of the DNA content of sorted cells in the G0/G1 phase. After the size separation by hydrophoresis, the collected cells from the range of 400-1000 µm in the 1 mm wide outlet region have a G0/G1 to G2/M ratio of 22.1:1. (c) Histogram of the DNA content of control, unsorted cells. The initial asynchronous cells have a G2/M to G0/G1 ratio of 0.25:1. (d) Histogram of the DNA content of sorted cells in the G2/M phase. After the size separation by hydrophoresis, the collected cells from the range of 0-300 µm in the 1 mm wide outlet region have a G2/M to G0/G1 ratio of 5.8:1.

experimentally found that these relatively low particle Reynolds numbers allow the hydrophoretic sorting without the significant effect of the inertial lift forces. Thus, the following experiments were performed under the operational condition of a flow rate of 4 µL/min. Device Characterization with Mammalian Cells. Figure 3a is a representative image we obtained after cells passed through the device having 200 anisotropic microfluidic obstacles. As shown in the figure, we observed the cell size-dependent distribution that ranged from ∼200 to ∼600 µm in the 1 mm wide outlet region. The asynchronous, control cells with areas of 175.8, 215.7, and 282.0 µm2 (right-to-left order of the cells indicated with an arrow

in Figure 3a) were separated into the distinct positions of 541.0, 404.4, and 251.4 µm, respectively. The corresponding diameters of the cells were 15.0, 16.6, and 19.0 µm, respectively. To determine the exact relationship between the cell area and lateral distribution, we plotted the cell area and lateral position for the asynchronous cells measured (n ) 309). As shown in Figure 3b, there exists a linear correlation between the two-paired data. In linear regression analysis, the regression coefficient of the cell area is -1.6 µm/µm2. The mean values for the lateral position and cell area are 444.9 ± 86.4 µm and 197.5 ± 41.8 µm2, respectively. The corresponding diameters of the cells are 15.8 ± 1.6 µm. The scatter plot shown in Figure 3b strongly suggests that our device is able to sort cells by size that would be in different phases of the cell cycle. To experimentally confirm that we are indeed differentiating cell cycle arrest in a specific phase, we then measured and compared the M-phase-arrested cells by nocodazole with the control, asynchronous cells. Nocodazole is a synchronizing agent that arrests cells at or prior to mitosis and then results in an increase of cell size. Figure 3c is a scatter plot resulting from our cell area and position measurements (n ) 238). The mean values for the lateral position and cell area are 349.6 ± 85.8 µm and 237.8 ± 50.2 µm2, respectively. The corresponding diameters of the cells are 17.3 ± 1.8 µm. When compared with the control cells, the M-phase-arrested cells we measured have an average change in both the cell area of 40.3 µm2 and a lateral position of -95.3 µm. The nocodazole-treated cells become larger than the asynchronous, control cells and can be discriminated from the control cells in the hydrophoretic device. Truly synchronized cells should have a narrower size distribution than asynchronous, control cells, reflecting the cell size of a normal cell at a specific cell cycle. However, the nocodazole-treated cells are still in a wide size distribution similar to the control cells. This may be attributed to the chemical interference and its effect on the cell physiology. Cooper et al. have revealed that cells treated with nocodazole do not reflect the sizes of cells seen during the normal G2 phase of the cell cycle, while they have the DNA content that is comparable with that of the G2 phase.23 These results support that our hydrophoretic device well reflects the physiological change of cells by chemical interference. Cell Cycle Synchronization. The cell size-dependence of the position distribution in the hydrophoretic device described above suggests that our method can also allow a continuous sorting of cells in target phases by exploiting the relationship between a cell’s size and its phase in the cell cycle (i.e., proliferating cells grow in all phases of the cell cycle but the M phase and tend to double in cell mass before the M phase). Cells at different stages of the cell cycle can be distinguished by the amount of DNA they contain.24 Cells in the G2/M phase have two copies of DNA and accordingly have 2 times higher fluorescence intensity than cells in the G0/G1 phase. Therefore, the fluorescence intensity range of the G0/G1 phase can be deconvoluted by fitting the G0/G1 peak, the large peak of the cell cycle histogram as a Gaussian curve. We, then, set the intensity range approximately 2 times higher than the G0/G1 range as the G2/M phase. The (23) Cooper, S.; Iyer, G.; Tarquini, M.; Bissett, P. Cell Tissue Res. 2006, 324, 237–242. (24) Krishan, A. J. Cell Biol. 1975, 66, 188–193.

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synchronization performance of the hydrophoretic device was characterized by sorting target cells in the G0/G1 and G2/M phases out of asynchronous, control cells. After harvesting U937 cells from culture, we resuspended them in fresh culture medium and injected the cells into the hydrophoretic device at a throughput of approximately 2.4 × 105 cells per hour per microchannel. After the hydrophoretic size separation, we collected cells from the range of 0-300 µm and of 400-1000 µm of the 1 mm wide outlet region for target cells in the G2/M and G0/G1 phases, respectively. Parts a and b of Figure 4 are histograms resulting from flow cytometry analysis of initial, asynchronous cells and sorted cells in the G0/G1 phase. As shown, there is a significant decrease of the cell count in the G2/M phase after the hydrophoretic size separation. On the basis of this histogram, we judge that the ratio of the G0/G1 to the G2/M cells increases to 22.1:1 from their initial ratio of 5.2:1 and the cell synchrony in the G0/G1 phase reaches approximately 95.5%. Parts c and d of Figure 4 are histograms that verify the successful depletion of cells in G0/G1 after the hydrophoretic size separation. When comparing the histograms before and after the hydrophoretic separation, we judge that the ratio of G2/M to G0/G1 cells increases to 5.8:1 from their initial ratio of 0.25:1, and the cell synchrony in the G2/M phase reaches 85.2%. CONCLUSION In summary, we have presented a hydrophoretic method for sorting cells in target phases of the cell cycle entirely based on a hydrodynamic principle, the hydrophoretic size separation that

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uses convective, rotational flows induced from regularly patterned anisotropic microfluidic obstacles without the need for electric or any physical fields. With this method, we have demonstrated a linear relationship between a cell’s size and its position distribution in the hydrophoretic device and its use for sorting cells by size that were in different phases of the cell cycle, achieving a high level of cell synchrony. From a practical point of view, the hydrophoretic device is simple, noninvasive, effective and does not require any external power for cell cycle synchronization. While we demonstrated cell cycle synchronization in the experiments reported here, this device could be used in tumor cell detection and in tumor cell studies of the effects of pharmacological agents on the cell cycle and cell death. ACKNOWLEDGMENT This work was supported by the Korea Science and Engineering Foundation (KOSEF) NRL Program grant funded by the Korea government (MEST) (Grant R0A-2008-000-20109-0), and by the Nano/Bio Science and Technology Program (Grant 2005-01291) of the MEST, Korea. The authors also thank the Chung Moon Soul Center for BioInformation and BioElectronics, KAIST. SUPPORTING INFORMATION AVAILABLE Additional information as noted in text. This material is available free of charge via the Internet at http://pubs.acs.org. Received for review November 19, 2008. Accepted January 10, 2009. AC8024575