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There is now a CONTENT FREEZE for Mercury while we switch to a new platform. It began on Friday, March 10 at 6pm and will end on Wednesday, March 15 at noon. No new content can be created during this time, but all material in the system as of the beginning of the freeze will be migrated to the new platform, including users and groups. Functionally the new site is identical to the old one. webteam@gatech.edu
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Nano@Tech welcomes Dr. J. Mark Meacham, CEO of OpenCell Technologies, on "From Droplets to Cells: Physics, Devices and Applications."
Due to current budget restraints on campus the Nano@Tech seminar series will be providing lunch only to those who have pre-registered. To attend the seminar, RSVP by Friday, November 5, 2010.
Abstract:
The ability to introduce drugs, genes, nucleic acids, and/or imaging agents into living cells is critical to drug design and delivery, as well as to many cell biology and genetic modification protocols. However, intracellular delivery and transfection remain difficult tasks. Through synergetic use of focused physical fields (e.g., fluidic, acoustic, electric, thermal and solutal), micro-fabricated devices can enable localized control of the extracellular environment leading to desired bioeffects. Conception, analysis and demonstration of one such device are presented.
The Electrosonic Actuation Microarray is a novel microelectromechanical systems (MEMS)‐enabled device that ejects sample containing biological cells through microscopic (of order size of a single cell) nozzles with incorporated electroporation electrodes. Focused mechanical (pressure and shear) and electrical forces are generated on a microsecond time scale—dictated by nozzle geometry, ejection frequency and velocity, and electroporation voltage. This yields identical “active” microenvironments for each ejected cell. Technical details of device operation and the physics describing droplet formation and ejection are included.
Biography:
J. Mark Meacham received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in mechanical engineering from Iowa State University in 1999 and 2002, respectively. He received his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Georgia Tech in 2006, where he investigated the physics of droplet ejection from a novel ultrasonic atomizer. In 2006, he received an NRC postdoctoral research fellowship to investigate improved microfluidics-based technologies for counterflow separations in the Biochemical Sciences division at NIST. His research interests include microfluidics and MEMS, with application to development of biomedical devices and life sciences tools.
Meacham is currently focused on optimization and commercialization of novel intracellular nanomaterial delivery devices through OpenCell Technologies, an early stage startup company working within the Advanced Technology Development Center at the Georgia Institute of Technology.
