Internet-enabled lab-on-a-chip technology for education.

Despite many interventions, science education remains highly inequitable throughout the world. Internet-enabled experimental learning has the potential to reach underserved communities and increase the diversity of the scientific workforce. Here, we demonstrate the use of lab-on-a-chip (LoC) technologies to expose Latinx life science undergraduate students to introductory concepts of computer programming by taking advantage of open-loop cloud-integrated LoCs.

Label-free and amplification-free viral RNA quantification from primate biofluids using a trapping-assisted optofluidic nanopore platform.

Viral outbreaks can cause widespread disruption, creating the need for diagnostic tools that provide high performance and sample versatility at the point of use with moderate complexity. Current gold standards such as PCR and rapid antigen tests fall short in one or more of these aspects. Here, we report a label-free and amplification-free nanopore sensor platform that overcomes these challenges via direct detection and quantification of viral RNA in clinical samples from a variety of biological fluids.

Open-loop lab-on-a-chip technology enables remote computer science training in Latinx life sciences students.

Despite many interventions, science education remains highly inequitable throughout the world. Among all life sciences fields, Bioinformatics and Computational Biology suffer from the strongest underrepresentation of racial and gender minorities. Internet-enabled project-based learning (PBL) has the potential to reach underserved communities and increase the diversity of the scientific workforce.

Optofluidic Particle Manipulation: Optical Trapping in a Thin-Membrane Microchannel.

We demonstrate an optofluidic device which utilizes the optical scattering and gradient forces for particle trapping in microchannels featuring 300 nm thick membranes. On-chip waveguides are used to direct light into microfluidic trapping channels. Radiation pressure is used to push particles into a protrusion cavity, isolating the particles from liquid flow.

Optofluidic Particle Manipulation Platform with Nanomembrane.

We demonstrate a method for fabricating and utilizing an optofluidic particle manipulator on a silicon chip that features a 300 nm thick silicon dioxide membrane as part of a microfluidic channel. The fabrication method is based on etching silicon channels and converting the walls to silicon dioxide through thermal oxidation. Channels are encapsulated by a sacrificial polymer which fills the length of the fluid channel by way of spontaneous capillary action.

FPGA Integrated Optofluidic Biosensor for Real-Time Single Biomarker Analysis.

Integrated optofluidic biosensors can fill the need for sensitive, amplification-free, multiplex single molecule detection which is relevant for containing the spread of infectious diseases such as COVID-19. Here, we demonstrate a rapid sample-to-answer scheme that uses a field programmable gate array (FPGA) to enable live monitoring of single particle fluorescence analysis on an optofluidic chip. Fluorescent nanobeads flowing through a micro channel are detected with 99% accuracy and particle concentrations in clinically relevant ranges from 3.

Optical trapping assisted label-free and amplification-free detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNAs with an optofluidic nanopore sensor.

Ultrasensitive, versatile sensors for molecular biomarkers are a critical component of disease diagnostics and personalized medicine as the COVID-19 pandemic has revealed in dramatic fashion. Integrated electrical nanopore sensors can fill this need via label-free, direct detection of individual biomolecules, but a fully functional device for clinical sample analysis has yet to be developed. Here, we report amplification-free detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNAs with single molecule sensitivity from clinical nasopharyngeal swab samples on an electro-optofluidic chip.

Recent advances in integrated solid-state nanopore sensors.

The advent of single-molecule probing techniques has revolutionized the biomedical and life science fields and has spurred the development of a new class of labs-on-chip based on powerful biosensors. Nanopores represent one of the most recent and most promising single molecule sensing paradigms that is seeing increased chip-scale integration for improved convenience and performance. Due to their physical structure, nanopores are highly sensitive, require low sample volume, and offer label-free, amplification-free, high-throughput real-time detection and identification of biomolecules.

Solid-state membranes formed on natural menisci.

We present a method to create robust, nanoscale solid-state membranes using the natural shape of a liquid meniscus as a template. A narrow, open channel is etched into a silicon substrate and then a photoresist polymer is introduced into the channel through spontaneous capillary action. The natural concave meniscus formed by the polymer is then covered by a thin chemical vapor deposited membrane.