Andre Lai Sciences
A High-Throughput Microfluidic Device for Single Cell Isolation and Analysis
Characterizing the relationship between every cell type is necessary for understanding the human body and advancing human medicine. One major technological hurdle involves the ability to isolate, manipulate, and analyze individual cells in a high-throughput fashion. Existing methods are plagued by low cell capture efficiency and limited user control. For his project, Andre aims to design, fabricate, and test a novel microfluidic device that will address these limitations. He will achieve this by incorporating a multiplex design with layered architecture and integrated elastomeric valves to enable complete isolation, imaging, and processing of single cells from any given sample. This technology will be critical for studies of rare or precious tissue samples and will contribute vitally to the larger biomedical research effort to catalog and study every cell in the human body.