529-0837-01L  Biomicrofluidic Engineering

SemesterAutumn Semester 2019
LecturersA. de Mello
Periodicityyearly recurring course
Language of instructionEnglish
CommentNumber of participants limited to 25.

IMPORTANT NOTICE for Chemical and Bioengineering students: There are two different version of this course for the two regulations (2005/2018), please make sure to register for the correct version according to the regulations you are enrolled in. Please do not register for this course if you are enrolled in regulations 2005.


AbstractMicrofluidics describes the behaviour, control and manipulation of fluids that are geometrically constrained within sub-microliter environments. The use of microfluidic devices offers an opportunity to control physical and chemical processes with unrivalled precision, and in turn provides a route to performing chemistry and biology in an ultra-fast and high-efficiency manner.
Learning objectiveIn the course students will investigate the theoretical concepts behind microfluidic device operation, the methods of microfluidic device manufacture and the application of microfluidic architectures to important problems faced in modern day chemical and biological analysis. A design workshop will allow students to develop new microscale flow processes by appreciating the dominant physics at the microscale. The application of these basic ideas will primarily focus on biological problems and will include a treatment of diagnostic devices for use at the point-of-care, advanced functional material synthesis, DNA analysis, proteomics and cell-based assays. Lectures, assignments and the design workshop will acquaint students with the state-of-the-art in applied microfluidics.
ContentSpecific topics in the course include, but not limited to:

1. Theoretical Concepts
Features of mass and thermal transport on the microscale
Key scaling laws
2. Microfluidic Device Manufacture
Conventional lithographic processing of rigid materials
Soft lithographic processing of plastics and polymers
Mass fabrication of polymeric devices
3. Unit operations and functional components
Analytical separations (electrophoresis and chromatography)
Chemical and biological synthesis
Sample pre-treatment (filtration, SPE, pre-concentration)
Molecular detection
4. Design Workshop
Design of microfluidic architectures for PCR, distillation & mixing
5. Contemporary Applications in Biological Analysis
Microarrays
Cellular analyses (single cells, enzymatic assays, cell sorting)
Proteomics
6. System integration
Applications in radiochemistry, diagnostics and high-throughput experimentation
Lecture notesLecture handouts, background literature, problem sheets and notes will be provided electronically.