​Seminar on (1) Acoustic Holograms – Creating Unique Flows and Functions in Microfluidics ; (2) Origami Diagnostics: Rapid, Low-Cost Paper-based Microfluidic DNA Tests for Infectious Disease

26 Nov 2019 10.00 AM - 11.00 AM MAE Meeting Room B (N3-02b-65) Current Students, Public

Professor Jonathan Cooper, FREng, FRSE
University of Glassgow

This seminar will be hosted by Prof Yang Chun Charles

Seminar Abstract

Acoustic Holograms – Creating Unique Flows and Functions in Microfluidics

Microfluidics and Lab-Chip technologies are synonymous with the movement of fluids on or around microstructured surfaces, including channels. Flow is often driven by peristaltic pumps or through electrokinetic flows (including electro-osmosis, for example). Recently, pressure driven flow through the use of surface acoustic waves (SAWs) has attracted much attention.  To better control the nature of the acoustic field when using SAWs, we have introduced the concept of using frequency dependent periodic arrays known as phononic crystals within microfluidics. In doing so, we have enabled new "acoustic holograms" that result in waveguiding, reflectors, bandgaps and lenses, that shape the ultrasonic field and create new microfluidic flows.  A series of applications on the use of SAW to perform medical diagnostics, drug delivery and enhanced nano-scale imaging are shown.


Origami Diagnostics: Rapid, Low-Cost Paper-based Microfluidic DNA Tests for Infectious Disease

Rapid, low-cost, species-specific information based upon DNA testing is becoming key to informing the treatment of patients with infectious disease. Populations in remote, under-served communities would benefit from this information, if available, enabling the correct treatment of infections. Such highly sensitive assays will become increasingly important in global efforts for disease elimination where the diagnosis of asymptomatic patients is important for the identification of disease reservoirs. However, healthcare workers face practical and logistical issues to the implementation of such tests, which often involve complex instrumentation and centralized laboratories. Here, we demonstrate a paper-based microfluidic technology that combines a vertical-flow origami sample-processing step with lateral-flow detection and simple visualisation system. The study was performed in village schools in Eastern Uganda with individual multiplexed species-specific diagnoses being completed in  <1hr.

Speaker’s Biography​

Professor Jonathan Cooper holds an European Research Council (ERC) advanced investigator award, a Royal Society Merit award and is an Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) Fellow. He was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (2001) and a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (2004). He was appointed to the Wolfson Chair in Biomedical Engineering in 2009. He has served on RAE’08 (EEE) and is currently serving on REF’14 (General Engineering). Previously, he was Head of the Division of Biomedical Engineering in the School of Engineering and a Dean in the College of Science and Engineering. He held positions as International Dean for East Asia and lead the University’s strategy in Transnational Education. He has also been involved as an academic founder of three spin-out companies, Modedx; SAWdx  and Clyde Biosciences, in the fields of medical diagnostics, drug delivery and new medicines discovery. 

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