Microfluidics as flexible tools for biomedical research

Microfluidics as flexible tools for biomedical research

Speaker: Professor Xingyu Jiang, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, China

Chair: Dr Felicity Han (ECR)

Biography: Xingyu Jiang is a Chair Professor at the Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, China. He obtained his BS at the University of Chicago (1999) and PhD at Harvard University (Chemistry, 2004). In 2005, he joined the National Center for NanoScience and Technology/the University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He moved to the Southern University of Science and Technology in 2018. His research interests include microfluidics and nanomedicine. He was awarded the “Hundred Talents Plan” of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the National Science Foundation of China’s Distinguished Young Scholars Award, the Scopus Young Researcher Gold Award, the Human Frontier Science Program Young Investigator Award. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (UK) and American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering.

Abstract: Microfluidics represent an appealing technology for not only biological assays but also new diagnostics/therapeutics. Driven by miniaturization and surface chemistry, microscale-chips allow the massive parallelization of assays/diagnostics, as well as synthesis of drug carriers and novel drugs based on nanoscale structures, with superior pharmaceutical properties. Combined with nanoparticles and nano-materials, microfluidics show great promise in developing novel therapeutics. For example, these platforms are useful for screening of therapeutics, e.g., nanocarriers for introducing siRNA, CRISPR/Cas, and so forth. In a second part of the talk, I will talk about microfluidics-based manipulation of liquid metals within polymeric encapsulation that allow flexible electronics that can seamlessly interface with biomedical systems, making possible wearable sensors for biological fluids, stretchable microelectrode arrays that can interface with the nervous system, and electroporation in live tissues.