Microfluidics

For two years I had the opportunity to begin work in the Genomation Lab at the UW under the guidance of Dr. Mark Holl. I was challenged to develop a device to physically isolate a single cell and perform stimulus response experiments in a lab-on-a-chip environment. Using published literature as a guide, I developed and perfected a unique variant of pressure activated valves with less than a picoliter of dead volume. Then, I demonstrated object trapping and precision peristaltic pumping at a single-cell scale. I then developed electro-pneumatic hardware that independently controlled up to 32 valves utilizing a computer interface, which went into limited production under my supervision. Over the course of 2 years in the Genomation Lab, I gained incredible experience in hands-on multidisciplinary research. I made microfluidic devices from concept to demonstration, developed a significant amount of mechanical and electrical hardware in support of this, and contributed to a patent-pending aspect of microfluidic device construction.