Digitally Coded Microfluidic Devices

Prof. A. Fatih Sarioglu
School of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Georgia Institute of Technology

Abstract: Microfluidic devices are extremely attractive for the analysis of biological samples as they offer unique capabilities from localized and deterministic bio-particle manipulation to integration with highly sensitive micromachined sensors/actuators. In fact, numerous biophysical and biochemical assays rely on differential manipulation of suspended bioparticles such as cells, viruses or proteins as they are processed on lab-on-a-chip devices. However, these devices typically lack on-chip readout, and therefore, the analysis of fractionated particles on these devices requires microscopy or other benchtop instruments, negating the cost and size advantages of microfluidic assays. In this talk, I will introduce our recent work on a scalable electronic sensor technology, named Microfluidic CODES, that utilizes resistive pulse sensing (i.e., Coulter principle) to track particles as they are processed on a microfluidic chip. Microfluidic CODES combines code-division multiplexing commonly used in CDMA cell phone networks with microfluidics and microfabrication to create an integrated micro-sensor network that can be used to spatiotemporally track particles on a microfluidic device. I will talk about the design and operating principles of the Microfluidic CODES technology, and specifically present the theoretical analysis of the system, computational tools developed for signal processing and experimental results on human tumor cells using prototype devices.

Bio: A. Fatih Sarioglu received the B.Sc. degree from Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey in 2003, and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Stanford University in 2005 and 2010, respectively, all in electrical engineering. He worked as a postdoctoral research associate at the Center for Nanoscale Science and Engineering, Stanford University and later as a research fellow in the Center for Engineering in Medicine at the Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital. In October 2014, he joined the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology as an Assistant Professor. His research interests are in developing nano- and micro-systems technologies for biomedical applications such as cancer detection, cellular and biomolecular analysis, point-of-care diagnostics and minimally invasive health monitoring.