Abstract: Microfluidics has gathered significant interest for biomedical applications, particularly the analysis of targeted biomolecules from minute amount of samples. This presentation will summarize our efforts on exploiting microfluidics for the manipulation and analysis of individual cells and subcellular organelles. In particular, we have explored the possibility of modulating hydrodynamic shear stress at microscale to selectively disrupt cellular membrane while maintaining the mitochondrial membrane intact. We have also investigated a microfluidics-based method to encapsulate protein payloads into red blood cells by controlling membrane deformation either transiently or extendedly in a microfluidic channel. This presentation will also highlight our recent development of a novel surfactant based on fluorinated plasmonic gold nanoparticles, rendering a previously unavailable feature of photo-responsiveness in droplet microfluidics. Looking forward, we plan to study the fundamentals of how individual cells alter their phenotypes in response to environmental and therapeutic stimuli. These efforts are expected to find clinical applications in diagnostics, prognostics and treatment evaluation of infectious and chronic diseases, as well as to expand our fundamental understanding towards disease development.

Bio: Megan Yi-Ping Ho is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. She received her B.S. and M.S. in Power Mechanical Engineering from National Tsing-Hua University, Taiwan. She received her Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the Johns Hopkins University in USA. After her postdoctoral training with Duke University in USA, she received the Young Elite Researcher Award from the Danish Research Council for Independent Research and started her independent career in the Interdisciplinary Nanoscience Centre and the Department of Molecular Biology & Genetics at Aarhus University in Denmark. She is a co-founder of two start-up companies situated in Demark, Zymonostics and vPCiR, focusing on enzyme-based diagnostics. She has published 67 peer-reviewed journal articles, 6 book chapters, 77 conference papers, edited 1 book and holds 2 granted patents. The results that she presented have been recognized internationally by the American Society of Gene Therapy and Controlled Release Society. Her research team is focused on developing nanosensors and microfluidics as diagnostic tools to expand the capacity of disease detection and treatment evaluation.

~BME Host: Young Kim~

Zoom link: https://purdue-edu.zoom.us/j/7731446991?pwd=RHdkZTVnRkxTM3J3dnRvY1VLWTlYUT09