Microfluidics as new tools for biochemistry

Professor Jiang, SUSTEC, China Part of the inorganic seminar series

Microfluidics represent an appealing platform for biochemical assays and discovery of new therapeutics (such as medical implants and drugs). We demonstrate that microfluidics can dramatically improve the efficiency of these assays and screens. Driven by miniaturization and surface chemistry, microscale-chips allow the assays of clinically important biomarkers such as proteins, nucleic acids and cells, with improved throughput, sensitivity and stability. Combined with nanoparticles and nanomaterials, microfluidics show great promise in developing novel assays and realizing point-of-care testing. These platforms are also extraordinarily useful for screening of therapeutics, e.g., nanocarriers for introducing siRNA, CRISPR/Cas, and so forth.