Research Interests

Evaluation of Fabrics as Masks for Aerosol Filtration

We are interested in evaluating different fabrics and their combinations to filtrate aerosols that are critical to ensure safety of the users and protects them from nano to micron scale foreign particles.

The hybrid masks that use a combination of fabrics demonstrated superior performance.

Microfluidics and Single-cell Sequencing

Genomics is an area of immense interest because of its potential of revolutionizing our understanding of disease and thereby contributing to better ways of tackling them. While a lot of efforts have been put into understanding the genome of multicellular eukaryotes, it is also critical to explore the microbial genome to fully address some of the current challenges in medicine, environment, and other areas. Currently, we are working on developing tools that enable the quantification of genetic variation that exists in microorganisms at a single-cell resolution and high throughput.

Reconfigurable Microfluidic Reactors (μ-reactors)

Developed a microfluidic system that we refer to as “soft microreactor” which can be sealed to not only planar 2D substrates but also to 3D substrates with or without surface texture. This is a unique, non-traditional way of fabricating microfluidic devices compatible with non-planar surfaces, and expanding the capabilities of traditional devices that are only compatible with planar, smooth surfaces.

μ-reactors for Synthesis and Deposition

We explored the effects of fluid flow on the synthesis and deposition of inorganic materials leading to (i) the synthesis of zincoxide mesostructures and (ii) the deposition of conductive copper traces useful for fabricating 3D circuitry. Our approach is simple, and is solution-based (a process we call microfluidic-directed electroless copper deposition, μ-DECD).