Developing simple, robust, and automated platforms that integrate multiple microfluidic operations into a single device remains a challenge in modern bioanalytical systems. This seminar introduces a microfluidic chip platform that exploits surface-tension-driven flow and mobile structural layers to automate fluid handling processes including transport, mixing, volume metering, and biomolecule manipulation. The platform combines vertically mobile top layers with rotationally mobile bottom layers, enabling precise spatiotemporal control of biochemical solutions and magnetic beads without reliance on complex external instrumentation. This mechanically programmable architecture provides a compact and reliable approach to implementing multistep bioassay workflows.

To demonstrate the versatility and clinical relevance of the platform, four representative applications will be presented:

Together, these examples illustrate how mobile-layer microfluidic automation can provide a scalable alternative to conventional laboratory automation systems, enabling streamlined and accessible bioanalytical workflows for diagnostics and research applications.

 

Dr. Sung-Jin Kim is a Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Konkuk University, Korea. He received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Michigan in 2010 and subsequently completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the same institution. He is currently a Visiting Scholar in the Takayama Group at the Georgia Institute of Technology. His research focuses on fluidic systems inspired by electronic circuit analogies, capillarity-driven transport, and thermofluidic control, with applications spanning biomedical diagnostics, bioanalytical platforms, and physical fluidic transport phenomena.