Douglas Densmore

Microfabrication of Lab on a Chip Devices

PROJECT DESCRIPTION
Microfluidics has the potential to address numerous challenges in the field of synthetic biology [1-3]. However, the cost barrier of the common microfluidic design (lack of automation) and fabrication method (photolithography), has slowed down the contribution of microfluidics in the field of biology. CIDAR lab has developed a low cost rapid manufacturing platform based on micromachining that allows researchers to specify, design, build, and test microfluidic chips in an automated manner.

[1] Ferry, M. S., I. A. Razinkov, and J. Hasty. “Microfluidics for synthetic biology: from design to execution.” Methods in enzymology 497 (2011): 295.
[2] H. Huang, “Fluigi: An end-to-end Software Workflow for Microfluidic Design,” Boston University, 2015.
[3] Gulati, Shelly, et al. “Opportunities for microfluidic technologies in synthetic biology.” Journal of The Royal Society Interface (2009): rsif20090083.

ABOUT THE LAB
Cross-Disciplinary Integration of Design Automation Research (CIDAR) focuses on the development of tools that help accelerate research in synthetic biology. These tools range from computational, physical, biological and incorporate ideas from different fields into synthetic biology.

LABORATORY MENTOR
Ali Lashkaripour; lashkari@bu.edu

RESEARCH GOALS
Potential undergraduate researchers will have the opportunity to build microfluidic systems and will also help contribute to the verification of Neptune, a software platform for microfluidic chip design automation, fabrication and control developed in CIDAR lab. To this end, the researcher will have to fabricate and test the proposed designs by Neptune and verify the design automation process. The design output of Neptune will be fabricated on polycarbonate stock using a desktop micro-CNC mill. Ultimately, this will lead to automated design of lab on a chip devices that could play a major role in advancing the field of synthetic biology.

LEARNING GOALS
Microfluidics – The researcher will have the opportunity to shadow and learn about the fundamental concepts of designing microfluidic systems and understanding the fluid dynamics seen in these systems.

Manufacturing – The researcher will master microfabrication and microfluidic chip assembly protocols developed at CIDAR [transposer ref].

CAD/CAM Tools – The researcher will have the opportunity to use CAD/CAM tools like Solidworks and Autodesk Fusion 360 during the design process.

Embedded Systems – The researcher will also get familiarized with using microfluidic peripheral devices including syringe pumps, microscopes and Arduinos.

TIMELINE OF PROJECT
2 – Weeks : Learning the CIDAR tools and manufacturing protocols
2 – Weeks : Literature research on microfluidics applications in Synthetic biology
1 – Weeks : Initial design and prototyping and design. Establishment of performance metrics
3 – Weeks : Iteration and Verification of design
1 – Weeks : Documentation of work and poster preparation

Learn more about Professor Densmore on his faculty page.