529-0837-01L Biomicrofluidic Engineering
Semester | Autumn Semester 2019 |
Lecturers | A. de Mello |
Periodicity | yearly recurring course |
Language of instruction | English |
Comment | Number 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. |
Abstract | Microfluidics 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 objective | In 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. |
Content | Specific 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 notes | Lecture handouts, background literature, problem sheets and notes will be provided electronically. |