BioMEMS

Research that includes:

  • Immunosensors
  • Single Cell Analysis
  • Cell Manipulation and Probing
  • SERS BioImaging
  • Micro Total Analysis Systems uTAS
  • DNA Transformations
  • Cell Cryropreservation
  • Optoelectronic Transport & Tweezers

BPN602: Ion Channel Sensors Based on Mesoporous Silica Films

Pauline J. Chang
2011

The goal of this project is to develop bio/chemical sensors based on ion channel proteins. Past efforts to develop similar sensors have been hampered by the complexities of providing both fluidic and electrical access to the ion channels. Here, mesoporous silica, a novel nanostructured material with ordered columnar nanopores, will be used to provide a fluid-porous support for ion channels inserted in a synthetic lipid membrane. Collecting the picoampere-level ion currents requires that the mesoporous layer provides low parasitic capacitance and that the silica-lipid membrane...

BPN326: Development of a Microstimulator Implant for Neuromuscular Disease

Maral Gharib
2010

Facial nerve dysfunction is a common problem affecting both genders, all races, and all ages and is caused by numerous medical problems, including stroke. In particular, the inability to blink causes serious long term problems both physically and psychologically. Electrical stimulation of a blink does not work because the current needed to induce a blink also causes intense pain. The long-range objective of our research is to develop an artificial synapse chip system that can be used in a novel therapeutic strategy for denervated muscles by mimicing the natural stimulation that...

BPN451: A Cyborg Beetle: Insect Flight Control by a Neural Stimulator

Hirotaka Sato
Travis L. Massey
2011

Despite major advances, performance of micro air vehicles (MAV's) is still limited in terms of size, payload capacity, endurance, and controllability. Various species of insects have as-yet unmatched flight capabilities and increasingly well understood muscular and nervous systems. Additionally, some of these insects undergo complete metamorphosis making them amenable to implantation and internal manipulation during metamorphosis. In light of this, we attempt to create implantable bio-interface to electrically stimulate nervous and muscular systems of alive insect to control its...

BPN545: Brain Machine Interfaces for Insect Flight Control

Amol Jadhav
2011

Insects with well developed flight muscles and sophisticated neuronal network signify nature's amazing flying machines which far surpass any human engineered initiative at this scale (e.g. micro air vehicles). The complicated mechanism of flight involving generation of flight response in the brain and delegation of control spikes to the flight muscles remains relatively unexplored and presents opportunity for advanced tools and techniques to further explore this area. In this project we intend to use advanced Brain Computer Interfaces (BCI) to perform neuronal ensemble measurements...

BPN643: Characterization of Growth and Osteogenic Differentiation of Human Bone Marrow Stromal Cells on Precisely Defined Surface Microtopographies

Eun Jung Kim
2012

A novel approach to enhance bone regeneration provided by transplantation of bone marrow derived cells involves rapid concentration and selection of the osteoblastic progenitor population in the graft using selective attachment to the matrix surface. MEMS (microelectromechanical systems) technology and related microfabrication techniques can be used to create precisely defined surface microscale topographies that can selectively stimulate cells on the surface of scaffolds to enhance osteoprogenitor cell growth and subsequent bone formation. The goal of this project is to investigate...

BPN403: Functional and Organized Cellular Substrates

Adrienne T. Higa
2012

While single cell studies have historically been the driving force for cell biology, collective, or group, behavior is actually the true working mechanism of numerous growth and pathological phenomenon in the body including morphogenesis, wound healing, and cancer metastases. Mechanical micro-environment cues have been demonstrated as important regulators of single cell behavior, and this project focuses on investigating mechanical regulation of collective cell behavior via microtopographic substrates.

Project end date: 08/15/12

BPN475: A CMOS Magnetic Sensor Chip for Biomedical Assay

Karl Skucha
2012

This project aims to develop a compact CMOS biosensor for robust detection of micron-sized paramagnetic beads which are used as labels for target analyte in biomedical applications.No external magnet, reference sensors or calibration is required. A 4.5-um bead is detected in 16 ms with probability of detection error < 0.1%. The ultimate goal of this project is to integrate the CMOS sensor chip with micro-fluidic system and demonstrate a lab-on-a-chip platform.

Project end date: 08/16/12

BPN664: Blocks in Cells' Clothing: Mechanical Design of Tissues

Daniel J. Cohen
2012

One of the most enduring paradigms in tissue engineering (the growth of artificial organs, graft tissues, etc.) is that the materials we use should be made to look more like the environment that cells normally experience. By contrast, I am working on a new type of structure designed to appear, to a cell, to be another cell. By using microfabrication methods and kidney cells, I am producing a library of different shapes, all of which are identified as 'cell' by actual cells. While esoteric, the ability to appear as a cell would encourage a number of new approaches to tissue...

BPN484: Effects of Cell Contact in Differentiation of Adult Neural Progenitor Cells

Sisi Chen
2012

Cell-to-cell contact plays an important but poorly understood role in stem cell differentiation. Many proteins, such as notch, hedgehog, cadherins, and gap junctions rely on cell contact for signal transduction. The goal of this project is to probe the effects of cell contact in the differentiation of adult neural progenitor cells by high efficiency micropatterning techniques for monitoring dynamic activity or for downstream expression profiling. The adaptation of a microfluidic platform for the delivery of chemical gradients will also enable us to probe the ability of cells to...

BPN612: High-Throughput CMOS Detector for Magnetic Immunoassays

Simone Gambini
2012

The goal of this project is to design an electronic system capable of detecting the presence of < 2.8um magnetic beads over a biologically relevant number of sensing sites in less than 10 seconds, giving an over 10X improvement in measurement time over prior art. We use a combination of signal processing and low-noise circuit design techniques to obtain this goal.

Project end date: 08/17/12