Digital Microfluidic Biochips for Nanomedical Applications

Abstract: Recent advances in nanotechnology have led to the emergence of a new discipline called nanomedicine, which includes among others, the development of biochip (or lab-on-a-chip), which is useful to implement biochemical assays on a tiny device for rapid chemical analysis or medical diagnosis. To fabricate such a device, one has to integrate microfluidic techniques with optical and electronic sensors. A complex electronic control mechanism is also needed to support various fluidic operations on a substrate. These chips are likely to bring a complete paradigm shift in the area of biochemical diagnostics, DNA detection, or drug design system, to name a few.
In this talk, we will discuss the architectures of digital microfluidic based biochips, and demonstrate various design and test algorithms that are employed to monitor and evaluate the movement, mixing, separation, and delivery of nano-liter volume of fluid droplets through the pathways on a biochip.
Bio: Professor Bhargab B. Bhattacharya has been on the faculty of the Indian Statistical Institute, Calcutta, since 1982. He held visiting professorship at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, USA, at the University of Potsdam, Germany, and at IIT Kharagpur India. His research interest includes design and testing of integrated circuits, biochips, computational nanoscience, digital geometry, and image processing architecture. He has published more than 230 technical articles, and he holds 9 United States Patents. He is a Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering, a Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences (India), and a Fellow of the IEEE.