Applied Miniaturisation Laboratory

My research is mainly about designing, testing a high voltage CMOS chip and its integration with microfluidic chips. The final goal of this project is the development of a complete lab on a chip system based on the electrophoresis phenomena. My research interests are design, fabrication, and testing of high voltage circuits in high voltage CMOS process.

My research deals with aluminum sputtering and nano-HPLC. I'll be determining the yields for Dr. Burrell's (CME) sputtering machine and whether or not we can get acceptable results using nanoscale channels. My focus is on the BioMedical Engineering aspect, so I'm doing a joint BME-ECE masters program. This research is going towards the system-on-a-chip biosensor.

Broadly, my interest is in the miniaturization, automation and instrumentation development for medical diagnostics, often referred to as Lab-on-a-chip technologies. Microfluidic platform development for detecting (ex-vivo) the disease states using established biophysical and biochemical characteristics and techniques is the mandate.

The integration of soft materials with inorganic structures for the focused development of sensing and measurement devices.

Evolutionary computing is a relatively new field that has the potential to revolutionize medical diagnostic systems. While research into hand-held diagnostic devices is progressing quickly, the computational infrastructure needed to analyze the acquired data remains large and unwieldy. My research centers on the use of computational intelligence (specifically evolutionary algorithms) to rapidly identify potentially harmful cells based on the intensity patterns of laser light scattered by the cell's component nano-structures. Current scattering analysis is done on huge supercomputer grids. The aim of our evolutionary system is to produce comparable results on devices no bigger than the palm of the hand.

The primary focus of my research is to investigate micro- and nano-fabrication techniques for building cost-effective genetic analysis devices. Currently, wide-spread genetic profiling is not feasible, which greatly comprises the quality of life for many patients (ex. incorrect cancer treatments). The miniaturization and creation of new genetic analysis methods permits readily accessible patient information allowing clinicians to make informed decisions regarding patient treatment. Furthermore, these miniaturized medical devices, often referred to as ``Lab-on-a-chip'' (LOC), will be capable of point-of-care analysis permitting testing in remote locations such as Alaska, or even space.