Luke P. Lee (Advisor)

Current methods for biomolecular quantification inside cells are limited. We are developing an in-vivo nanoplasmonic imaging approach for multiplexed readout of intracellular biomolecular data – useful in the study of cellular dynamics and disease states.

Project end date: 09/09/12

Water scarcity is projected to affect 1.8 billion people in the world by 2025. Due to the dramatic population growth of urban areas, the imminent water crisis demands efficient greywater treatment in new housing solutions. To address this need, we are developing a prototype of Solar Optics-based Active Panels (SOAP), which allows us to test the photocatalytic treatment of greywater using sunlight and immobilized titanium dioxide nanoparticles. The expected outcome of this research will be a prototype SOAP reactor that demonstrates fast inactivation of representative contaminants of...

We are developing a high-throughput microsystem which sorts cells based on their response to electrical stimulation. Electrophysiological measurements are commonly used to identify subpopulations of electrically-excitable cells such as myocytes and neurons and to determine the degree to which stem cells have differentiated into these cell types. However, there currently exist no technologies capable of rapidly sorting cells based on electrophysiological parameters. There is a clinical need for label-free sorting of stem cell-derived cells for tissue replacement therapies because...

Predictive and preventive diagnostics promise to dramatically improve targeted patient healthcare while vastly reducing systemic costs. However, patients in remote and resource-poor settings have significantly reduced access to valuable diagnostics. We are integrating nucleic acid based molecular recognition elements into microfluidic devices to achieve quantitative measures of a range of biomarkers without the need for external equipment. We have further designed an opto- biochemical signal amplification component for downstream readout. We aim to reduce assay cost, time- to-answer...