Cellular Biophysics Sensors
Our lab has developed a variety of sensors to measure passive and excitable electrical and chemical properties of isolated cells using a mixture of MEMS based fabrication techniques, rapid prototyping methodology and thick film technology. In one approach, we record electrical properties around an isolated single cell in real time with sub-cellular resolution. A high-throughput, microfluidic device has also been developed allowing the power of statistics to discriminate smaller differences between cells. These measurements are non-invasive, allow for millisecond data acquisition, and on a spatial scale different then conventional electophysiology. Data could eventually relate to ionic channel opening/closing, cell polarity, the release kinetics of certain analytes from the cell and endocytosis/endocytosis along the cell membrane. Potential uses for such devices include point of care diagnostics, scientific research tools and pharmaceutical testing. Current research in this area focuses on the design, fabrication and implementation of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) devices for electrochemical studies of hair cells. Hair cells a (more...)
Micro-Electric Impedance Tomography (u-EIT) is an electrophysiological technique that can be used to spatially resolve electrical activity around the periphery of a single cell’s membrane. (more...)
We have made significant progress in the fabrication and testing of new systems for Micro-domain voltage clamp. This technique has been expanded to a high throughput platform using a microf (more...)
Current work is on the development of a device that uses fiber optics to measure fluid flow through a tube. The measurement tool used is a one-dimensional position sensitive detector (PSD) f (more...)