ABSTRACT:
Acoustic-fluidics, which uses sound waves to manipulate fluidics in microfluidic systems, has emerged as a powerful tool to enable a wide range of applications, from cell separation to sample processing and biomarker detection. In this talk, we will show how the use of acoustic band gap materials enables to integrate different microfluidic functions (separation, concentration, heating, mixing, etc.) onto a single platform. This configuration offers the possibility to change the paradigm of microfluidics, where classically samples are moved through channels to reach different positions where different functions are performed, to one where the sample stays mostly stationary while the functions are changed by switching the frequency of the acoustic excitation.
This methodology has been applied to integrate DNA diagnostics onto a single disposable microchip under 40 min (for the diagnostics of neglected tropical diseases and sexually transmitted diseases), as well as to control nebulisation of drugs.
The talk will also explore the use of different matrices to perform integration on low-cost platforms, such as paper.
SPEAKERS CV:
Dr. Julien Reboud is a Lecturer in Engineering at the University of Glasgow (2017 to date). He is an engineer trained in French academic institutions including Paris VI-VII University (Paris, France) and a PhD from Joseph Fourier University (Grenoble, France), working on developing a screening technology for drug discovery that led to a significant increase the level of information obtained from high-throughput assays on living cells. During his post-doctoral research in Singapore (Institute of Microelectronics, A*-Star), he integrated microfluidics and biosensing to develop diagnostics for easy-to-use point-of-care tests in collaboration with clinicians. Since leaving Singapore, he has worked in Glasgow, where he has developed expertise in acoustic science and its application to the manipulation of biological fluids and living entities for diagnostics. He pioneered the development of thephononic approach in acoustofluidics and in collaboration with parasitologists, he also showed that the same platform was suitable for blood based molecular diagnostics. He has a track-record of high profile publications (36 peer reviewed papers including PNAS, Angewandte and Advanced Materials, H=14) and patents (14 awarded or filed, whilst at A*-Star in Singapore or the University of Glasgow). He was awarded the French National Innovation Award during his PhD, the RAEng ERA Entrepreneurship Prize (2013), and was Highly Commended for Technology and Innovation at the Times Higher Education Awards (2014). He has been invited to talk at international conferences (SPIE Photonics West 2011, Semicon 2014, CYTO 2015, Ultrasonics 2016, NanoBioInterfaces, 2016). He served on the organising committee of the IWRA World Water Congress (2015) and helps organizing the IEEE International Ultrasonics Symposium (2019).
