Friday, November 25, 2016
2:00pm-3:00pm
Mechanical Engineering Building, MC102
5 King's College Road
Speaker: Mina Hoorfar
Affiliation: University of British Columbia – Okanagan Campus
Location: MC 102
Date and time: November 25, 2016, 2-3 PM
Abstract
Portable sensors and biomedical devices are influenced by high precision control of microfluidic systems, low-cost fabrication techniques, detection and analysis capabilities. The integration of sensing devices into the chip is still a major problem in microfluidic devices. This presentation focuses on design and fabrication of a precise liquid handling system for flow-thru biosensors using open and closed digital microfluidic (DMF) systems. Real-time on-chip detection of biological species in the biosensor is demonstrated using both optical detection of individual stained cells as well as measuring capacitance variation of a cluster of biological cells passing through the readout site. Adding sample preparation, filtering and purification sites, the proposed biosensor can be used for total analysis or single cell analysis assays. Featuring low-cost hardware with high capacitance measurement resolution and rapid chip fabrication techniques, the proposed biosensor design has the potential to be commercialized as viable solution for life-science research and clinical diagnostics.
Speaker biosketch
Mina Hoorfar is a Professor at the School of Engineering, The University of British Columbia (UBC), Canada, since 2006. Prior to joining UBC, she held an NSERC postdoctoral fellowship at Case Western Research University, working in one of the earliest centres of fuel cell research. She received her PhD and MASc degrees in Mechanical Engineering from University of Toronto in 2005 and 2001, respectively, and her BSc from University of Tehran, Iran, in 1998. Her current research focuses on the development of portable devices for biomedical applications and the design and fabrication of biosensors for environmental and agricultural applications.
