Microfluidic Droplets on Demand
Posted 14th June 2017 by Jane Williams
Active droplet generation in microfluidics is of high interest for a wide range of applications such as single cell analysis, DNA sequencing and nanoparticle synthesis to name a few.
Comparing and contrasting publications and patents
Posted 31st May 2017 by Jane Williams
University faculty and their research teams are constantly pushing the frontiers of science and engineering in their laboratories. Their research is often funded by government sources (e.g. The National Institutes of Health, The National Science Foundation), private entities (e.g. Scientific Philanthropy Alliance), or by the respective universities themselves.
Shaping Fluids with Freestyle Fluidics
Posted 12th May 2017 by Jane Williams
Microfluidics has obvious potential, and this is fuelling the exponential growth of the numbers of researchers and applications in this emerging field. But there has been surprisingly little uptake of microfluidic platforms into the workflows that most biologist use. Why?
The Microfluidic Match – A Sports Analogy
Posted 3rd May 2017 by Jane Williams
For sports fans, the “sweet spot” often means the perfect point of contact between two moving objects, be it a baseball bat trying to hit a wicked curve ball or a footballer (soccer player) smacking a well-timed bicycle kick into the corner of the net. To score a goal for microfluidic researchers, it often involves a perfect “match” between a developing novel technology and a groundbreaking application or scientific discovery.
Working at GlaxoSmithKline: A process engineer’s perspective
Posted 28th April 2017 by Jane Williams
David Lai applies microfluidic droplets for pharmaceutical secondary manufacturing with GSK where he splits his responsibilities between the departments of Advanced Manufacturing Technologies, Product and Process Engineering, and Drug Design and Selection. We spoke to him about his work.
Shaped paper pumps for microfluidic devices
Posted 17th April 2017 by Jane Williams
Glenn Walker, Associate Professor at North Carolina State University, is working with colleagues in the Department of Biomedical Engineering to develop low-cost, disposable pumps that can power a wide range of microfluidic devices. The pumps are made by laminating shaped pieces of commercially available filter paper, so they are inexpensive and easily fabricated by just about anyone.
An open letter from George Whitesides
Posted 12th April 2017 by Jane Williams
Dear Colleagues,
In the past decade, microfluidics has emerged as a distinct new field with the potential to influence subjects from chemical synthesis and biological analysis to optics and information technology.
Applications of microfluidics in the real world
Posted 13th March 2017 by Jane Williams
We examine some of the newest applications of microfluidics, including for environmental and clinical detection using paper-based devices, for detection of cancer markers using droplet digital microfluidics, and for assisted-reproductive technology.
