Michel M. Maharbiz (Advisor)

Research Advised by Professor Michel M. Maharbiz

Tushar Bansal

Alumni
Professor Michel M. Maharbiz (Advisor)
PostDoc 2009

Nanoplasmonics-enabled On-Demand and Systematic Gene Regulation

Eunice Lee
Luke P. Lee
Michel M. Maharbiz
Tejal Desai
Han Lim
2010

In this dissertation, nanoplasmonic optical antennae are utilized as “nanoplasmonic gene switches” for on-demand and systematic gene regulation in living systems. The plasmon resonance of nanoplasmonic gene switches is specifically tuned to the near- infrared spectral region where cells and tissues are essentially transparent. Due to their extraordinarily large surface-to-volume ratio, nanoplasmonic gene switches are ideal carriers of interfering oligonucleotides, such as antisense DNA and short interfering RNA oligonucleotides (siRNA). Interfering oligonucleotides enable direct,...

Microengineered Platforms For Assessing Cell-Cell Communication and Single-Cell Influences on Adult Neural Stem Cell Fate

Sisi (Siyu) Chen
Michel M. Maharbiz
David V. Schaffer
Henk Roelink
Zev Gartner
2012

The signaling environment experienced by a single cell is highly dependent on its interactions with its neighbors, which may secrete locally acting factors or act via membrane bound receptor-ligand systems. Stem cells are particularly sensitive to these signals, which act in concert to regulate self-renewal and discrete transitions into distinct fates. In the case of the adult neural stem cell, decades of in vivo and in vitro work have illustrated specific roles for different types of niche cells and some of the molecular mediators...

High-Resolution μECoG: Design, Fabrication, and Applications

Peter Ledochowitsch
Michel M. Maharbiz
Jose M. Carmena
Robert T. Knight
Christoph E. Schreiner
2013

Since the early 1950s, electrocorticography (ECoG), the measurement of electrical po- tentials on the surface of the brain has become an invaluable tool in neurosurgery for the localization of epileptic foci before resection. The ECoG electrodes used in clinical practice are made in an archaic serial process that involves hand-soldering wires to a stiff, coarse grid of electrodes with a spatial resolution >1 cm, and a tangle of transcranial wires. In this thesis we report a modern microfabrication process based on photolithographic pat- terning of...

Engineering Collective Behaviors

Daniel Cohen
Michel M. Maharbiz
Tejal Desai
Evan Variano
2013

Much of the world consists of many small things, animate or inanimate, interacting with each other to produce something larger than, and different from themselves. Comprising murders of crows, armies of ants, schools of fish, dunes of sand, and various organs in your body, the collective behaviors of these systems embody a different approach to engineering than we currently employ. This thesis explores three examples where principles from collective behaviors are deployed as engineering tools. The first example presents how the collective phenomenon of ‘percolation’ can be leveraged...

Neural Dust: Ultrasonic Biological Interface

Dongjin Seo
Michel M. Maharbiz
Elad Alon
John Ngai
2016

A seamless, high density, chronic interface to the nervous system is essential to enable clinically relevant applications such as electroceuticals or brain-machine interfaces (BMI). Currently, a major hurdle in neurotechnology is the lack of an implantable neural interface system that remains viable for a patient’s lifetime due to the development of biological response near the implant. Recently, mm-scale implantable electromagnetics (EM) based wireless neural interfaces have been demonstrated in an effort to extend system longevity, but the implant size scaling (and therefore...

Instrumenting Flexible Substrates for Clinical Diagnosis and Monitoring

Amy Liao
Michel M. Maharbiz
2018

Over the past decade, there has been rapidly growing interest in wearable and implantable devices for a wide range of biomedical applications. For many applications involving prolonged contact with the body, devices that are compliant and can comfortably conform to and move with the patient are highly preferred. These flexible substrates (i.e. clothing, bandages, meshes, catheters, etc) can be instrumented to measure various physiological markers, such as temperature, pH, and oxygenation levels, to better inform clinical care. In this dissertation, I will discuss two examples of...

Jaehyun Park

Alumni
Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences
Professor Michel M. Maharbiz (Advisor)
Ph.D. 2010

Oxygen Concentration Microgradients for Cell Culture

Jaehyun Park
Michel M. Maharbiz
Ming C. Wu
Amy E. Herr
2010

There is a growing need for technology that can control microscale oxygen gradients onto a tissue or culture sample in vitro. This dissertation introduces the oxygen microgradient chip (OMA), which employs electrolysis to generate oxygen microgradients within cell culture without forming bubbles. Dissolved oxygen generated at noble microelectrodes patterned on a chip surface diffuses through a gas-permeable silicone membrane and is dosed into cell culture. The amount of generated oxygen is directly proportional to a current flowing across the electrodes and thus can be controlled...

Light-induced Electrokinetics: A path to a Versatile Micro Total Analysis System

Justin Valley
Ming C. Wu
Michel M. Maharbiz
Amy E. Herr
2011

The micro total analysis system (uTAS) has seen great interest and advances since its definition over two decades ago. By harnessing the fabrication tools of the semiconductor industry and exploiting the unique physical phenomena that dominate at the micro- to nano-scale, these devices aim to address applications ranging from point-of-care diagnostics to pharmaceutical development. A truly versatile uTAS technology platform will enable reconfigurable, parallel, and high resolution analysis, processing, and sorting/purification. To this end, we present the concept of light-induced...