Centre for Research on Biomolecular Interactions presents Prof. Aaron Wheeler, Department of Chemistry and the Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research, University of Toronto, Toronto

Talk Title: "Digital Microfluidic Systems for Hard-to-Reach Settings"

Abstract: Microfluidics has been promoted for decades as being a potential solution to the problem of the need for portable analysis systems that can be operated outside of the laboratory or in other hard-to-reach settings. There are a handful of compelling examples of this type of portable analysis (in academia and industry), but to date there has been more talk than action towards this important goal. In this presentation, I will review my research group's work with digital microfluidics, a technique in which droplets of reagents are manipulated on open surfaces (without channels or walls). I will feature stories about the deployment of our digital microfluidic systems into two (very different kinds of) hard-to-reach settings. Finally, I will make the case that technologies like microfluidics can have greatest impact (in both easy- and hard-to-reach settings) when they are available to the widest pool of users, and will describe some efforts toward this goal from my own research group.

Short biography: Aaron Wheeler completed his PhD in Chemistry working with Dick Zare at Stanford University in 2003. After a postdoctoral fellowship at UCLA, Wheeler moved to Canada in 2005 to join the faculty at the University of Toronto, where he is the Tier-1 Canada Research Chair in Microfluidic Bioanalysis. Wheeler is an associate editor for the influential journal, Lab on a Chip, and is a recent recipient of the Lab on a Chip Pioneers of Miniaturization award.

Please join us,

Refreshments will be served.