Microfluidics is an exciting multidisciplinary field that operates at the microscale with a small amount of fluids. The hydrodynamic characteristics allow the control of chemicals, cells, lipids, and nucleic acids in space and time. Therefore, microfluidics enables applications that would not be feasible at the macroscale. This platform demonstrates high potential as a tool for in vitro cell culture, biological models, and drug research. The fluid flow in this microenvironment occurs in the laminar regime since no external force (magnetic force, etc) is applied. In this case, the micron scale minimizes the effects of mass and heat transfer, allowing the integration of different techniques for data acquisition in other ways than the macro scale.

In this way, microfluidics enables the manipulation of fluids, with applications in various fields, particularly in biomedical and pharmaceutical health. Our research lab has been applying microfluidics for more than 14 years to synthesize nanoparticles and nanoagregates to deliver genes and drugs. We have been investigating droplet microfluidics to produce microgels to encapsulate cells, drugs, and genes. Recently, our focus extended to microphysiological systems aiming to mimic tissues and organs to test nanoparticles and microgles.

Our focus is mainly biomedical applications, focusing on the development of processes and products that can contribute to human and animal health.