*********************************
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
*********************************
Dr. Delai Chen, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Microfluidic tools for high throughput chemistry and biotechnology
The intrinsic advantages that microfluidic tools afford â" miniaturization, compartmentalization, and improved control of solution mixing â" enable a host of chemical and biotechnological applications, including massively parallel, nanoliter-scale organic reactions and improved methods for protein crystallography. Compartmentalization of solutions into droplets also allows chemical signals to be transported without dispersion, a property that was utilized to develop the âchemistrodeâ â" the chemical analog of an electrode. The chemistrode can chemically stimulate and sample a biological surface with high spatial and temporal resolution, and enables off-line analysis of the recorded dynamic molecular signals. Measurement of insulin secretion from a single pancreatic islet with 1.5-second time resolution was demonstrated using the chemistrode. To facilitate high-throughput screening of reagents for small-interfering RNA (siRNA) delivery, a microfluidic mixing device was designed to rapidly formulate lipid-siRNA nanoparticles with improved control over particle sizes. This formulation approach offered novel insights into the high-throughput screening process that led to the discovery of potent non-viral reagents for siRNA and DNA delivery. Future research in microfluidics will continue to increase the impact of these tools, ushering in next generation disease diagnostics and therapeutics, as well as basic discoveries in the organizing principles of biology.
For more information contact Prof. Andrew Lyon (404-894-4090).
