Microfluidics

The unique properties of blood flow in microchannels has been studied for nearly a century; much of the observed blood-specific dynamics is attributed to the biconcave shape of red blood cells. However, for almost twice as long biologists have observed and characterized the differences in size and shape of red blood cells among vertebrates. With a few exceptions, mammals share the denucleated biconcave shape of erythrocytes but vary in size; oviparous vertebrates have nucleated ovoid red blood cells with size variations of a full order of magnitude. We utilize micro-PIV and pressure...

Dengue fever is one of global health concerns as two fifth of world population are considered to expose to the infection risk and 20K patients results in death per year. Even after successful recovery from the febrile disease, it often causes secondary neurological complications including encephalopathy, residual brain damage and seizures. However, unclear etiological details of neurological disorders still inhibit to uncover suitable treatments of the complications. Herein, we develop an in-vitro brain model for the comprehensive systematic analysis of neurological complications due...

Microfluidic devices are currently limited in their application potential by the lack of appropriate sensors or integrated electrodes. Building on the work of Prof. Dorian Liepmann's lab in electrodeposited electrodes and hot embossing, where deposited electrodes in contact with fluid channels are composed primarily of nickel, we endeavor to develop a novel process for gold-electroplating those nickel surfaces, within the channel, after the chip has been constructed (in situ). By using this process the metallic surfaces in contact with the electrolyte in the channel can be chemically...

This work presents a novel handheld, manually-actuated microfluidic prototype designed for on-site colorimetric detection of infectious pathogens in drinking water. We have also developed a custom drop-casting protocol we use to pre-load the entirely 3D printed device, fabricated via ultra-high resolution additive manufacturing technology, with colorimetric enzymatic reagents and bacteria-specific nutrients, which we use to experimentally detect Escherichia coli (E. coli) bacteria in model drinking water, as well as to determine a limit of detection of 1e6 cfu/mL of E. coli in 6...