Our research interests are to develop microfluidics-based technology platforms and to utilize these technology platforms to address important issues in the fields of molecular imaging, cancer biology and chemistry. In contrast to conventional bench-top setups, microfluidics has been used to manipulate chemical and biological processes on nanoliter (nL) to microliter (µL) scales with the profound advantages of enhanced heat transfer performance, faster diffusion time and reaction kinetics, as well as improved control over experimental conditions. By incorporating integrated microvalves into microfluidic batch systems, the integrated microfluidic platforms enable the execution and automation of multiple, parallel, and/or sequential chemical or biological processes on a single chip under digital control. For the past two years, we have been working with several research groups who have expertise covering molecular imaging, cancer biology, immunology and pathology to develop a variety of functioning microfluidic platforms for applications in three major areas of interest:
In a broader playing field, our goal remains the creation of further integrated microfluidic technology platforms for the broader space in chemistry and biology beyond a single functioning platform on a chip. We will compile many different microfluidic platforms to produce a number of game systems: “Let's Play”, where the blank is “systems biology of disease”, “biomarkers”, “pharmacology”, “biochemical reaction kinetics”, “chemistry” and “cancer diagnosis” etc. where execution is rapid and learning curves are steep.
