Welcome to Stanford Microfluidics Laboratory
The applications of microfluidics are among the greatest engineering challenges of the century and include drug discovery efforts, typing of single nucleotide polymorphisms for genetically-based drug prescription, fundamental genetics research, and proteomics. The field lies at the interfaces between engineering, chemistry, and biology; and aims to develop lab-on-a-chip systems.
Microfluidics is being used to develop new methods to analyze and control biochemical systems. The technology has the potential to achieve the following:
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Exploration of single cell and single molecule biophysics
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Miniaturization and portability of chemical assays
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Cost savings of minimal reagent use
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Potential for massively-parallel and high-throughput biochemical analyses
Engineering challenges include the realization of optimized processes in mixing, reaction, separation, pre-concentration, and detection of chemical species.
The Stanford Microfluidics Laboratory operates under the direction of Professor Juan G. Santiago of the Department of Mechanical Engineering. A major theme of our lab is the exploitation of the physical regimes associated with micro- and nano-scale devices in order to achieve new functionality. The long-term goal is to enable chemical and biological discoveries, help define the role of engineers in microfluidics, and educate the future leaders in the field.
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"... objects nonviewable to human watchers save 'twere perchance anon some glistery gleam darkling adown surface of affluvial flowandflow..." - from James Joyce's Finnegans Wake