On Modeling Diversity in Electrical Cellular Response: Data-Driven Approach.

Electrical properties of biological cells and tissues possess valuable information that enabled numerous applications in biomedical engineering. The common foundation behind them is a numerical model that can predict electrical response of a single cell or a network of cells. We analyzed the past empirical observations to propose the first statistical model that accurately mimics biological diversity among animal cells, yeast cells, and bacteria.

Feasibility of Tracking Multiple Single-Cell Properties with Impedance Spectroscopy.

Electric cell-substrate impedance sensing (ECIS) has been instrumental in tracking collective behavior of confluent cell layers for decades. Toward probing cellular heterogeneity in a population, the single-cell version of ECIS has also been explored, yet its intrinsic capability and limitation remain unclear. In this work, we argue for the fundamental feasibility of impedance spectroscopy to track changes of multiple cellular properties using a noninvasive single-cell approach.

Point-of-Care Technologies for the Advancement of Precision Medicine in Heart, Lung, Blood, and Sleep Disorders.

The commercialization of new point of care technologies holds great potential in facilitating and advancing precision medicine in heart, lung, blood, and sleep (HLBS) disorders. The delivery of individually tailored health care to a patient depends on how well that patient's health condition can be interrogated and monitored. Point of care technologies may enable access to rapid and cost-effective interrogation of a patient's health condition in near real time.

Semiconductor Electronic Label-Free Assay for Predictive Toxicology.

While animal experimentations have spearheaded numerous breakthroughs in biomedicine, they also have spawned many logistical concerns in providing toxicity screening for copious new materials. Their prioritization is premised on performing cellular-level screening in vitro. Among the screening assays, secretomic assay with high sensitivity, analytical throughput, and simplicity is of prime importance.

Self-Locking Optoelectronic Tweezers for Single-Cell and Microparticle Manipulation across a Large Area in High Conductivity Media.

Optoelectronic tweezers (OET) has advanced within the past decade to become a promising tool for cell and microparticle manipulation. Its incompatibility with high conductivity media and limited throughput remain two major technical challenges. Here a novel manipulation concept and corresponding platform called Self-Locking Optoelectronic Tweezers (SLOT) are proposed and demonstrated to tackle these challenges concurrently.

Carbon-ionogel supercapacitors for integrated microelectronics.

To exceed the performance limits of dielectric capacitors in microelectronic circuit applications, we design and demonstrate on-chip coplanar electric double-layer capacitors (EDLCs), or supercapacitors, employing carbon-coated gold electrodes with ionogel electrolyte. The formation of carbon-coated microelectrodes is accomplished by solution processing and results in a ten-fold increase in EDLC capacitance compared to bare gold electrodes without carbon. At frequencies up to 10 Hz, an areal capacitance of 2.

On the origin of enhanced sensitivity in nanoscale FET-based biosensors.

Electrostatic counter ion screening is a phenomenon that is detrimental to the sensitivity of charge detection in electrolytic environments, such as in field-effect transistor-based biosensors. Using simple analytical arguments, we show that electrostatic screening is weaker in the vicinity of concave curved surfaces, and stronger in the vicinity of convex surfaces. We use this insight to show, using numerical simulations, that the enhanced sensitivity observed in nanoscale biosensors is due to binding of biomolecules in concave corners where screening is reduced.

A stacked memory device on logic 3D technology for ultra-high-density data storage.

We have demonstrated, for the first time, a novel three-dimensional (3D) memory chip architecture of stacked-memory-devices-on-logic (SMOL) achieving up to 95% of cell-area efficiency by directly building up memory devices on top of front-end CMOS devices. In order to realize the SMOL, a unique 3D Flash memory device and vertical integration structure have been successfully developed. The SMOL architecture has great potential to achieve tera-bit level memory density by stacking memory devices vertically and maximizing cell-area efficiency.