ABSTRACT

Systems have emerged as powerful tools for manipulation of micro-scale flows. Ease of fabrication together with various visualization techniques prompt rapid growth in applications of microfluidic tools. Single-phase microfluidics, which is used to guide biological suspensions inside microchannels without addition of an immiscible suspending fluid, can be utilized for flow cytometry, rare cell diagnostic, growth of biofilm streamers and extensional rheometry. Multi-phase, i.e droplet, microfluidic platforms bring together the precise liquid handling capabilities of microfluidics with unprecedented control over size uniformity and the production rate of droplets. Droplet microfluidics are used for micro-particle synthesis, droplet-based digital polymerase chain reaction (ddPCR), droplet-based DNA sequencing, single-cell analysis and enzyme kinetic studies. Owing to the widespread use of microfluidics in various engineering applications, there is a critical demand for developing new microfluidic tools by relying on intrinsic forces of micro-scale flow, such as hydrodynamic and capillary forces. However, the fluid dynamics of suspensions and emulsions in complex geometries of microfluidics mean that experimental trials are the main approach to gain insight. The alternative path is utilizing both microfluidic experiments and mesoscale computational methods as interacting partners to address challenges of mixture flow at micro-scale. In my talk, I will present the path to developing biomedical microfluidic platforms by exploiting the physics of flow at microscale. I have employed microfluidic experiments and mesoscale simulations to gain insight into the physics of complex fluid flow in microfluidic geometries. The insight provided by my integrated experimental-computational approach permits exploiting the inherent force of the system, i.e hydrodynamic force, for developing easily deployable microfluidic systems. The outcome of my research will be applied to biomedical micro-filtration in single-phase microfluidics and on-chip liquid handling and droplet encapsulation systems for genomics, single-cell analysis and tissue engineering.

BRIEF ACADEMIC/EMPLOYMENT HISTORY:

In November 2014, I completed my doctoral degree in Chemical Engineering at the City College of New York under supervision of Professor Jeffrey Morris. My doctoral research focused on fluid dynamics and transport properties of inertial suspensions. From November 2014, I worked as a postdoctoral fellow in Professor Dino Di Carlo’s microfluidic lab at the Bioengineering department at the University of California Los Angeles. My research was focused on developing microfluidic systems for separation of circulating tumor cells (CTC) from blood samples, reducing jet in initial droplet generators and image analysis. I joined Corning Inc as a research scientist in 2018.

MOST RECENT RESEARCH INTERESTS:

1- complex fluids

2- tribology

3-signal processing

4-deep learning of transport phenomena