BME Microfluidics

Course Description

Microfluidics is the study of flow phenomena at small length scales with characteristic channel dimensions typically less than the diameter of a human hair. Small length scale effects become important as surface forces such as viscous drag and surface tension govern flow behavior rather than body forces (inertia) as seen in macroscale fluid mechanics. Miniaturization of fluid handling systems also allows the development of cell handling and manipulation devices, or micro Total Analysis Systems (TAS) also called “lab on a chip”, which combines biological sample preparation, separation, and analysis in a single device. Topics explored in this class include fundamental understanding and derivation of constitutive balances in fluid mechanics (i.e., Navier Stokes equation), exploration of electrokinetic flow phenomena for electrophoresis, fabrication techniques for microfluidics, overview of (TAS) systems especially capillary electrophoresis and miniaturized polymerase chain reaction for biochips, and exploration of integrated microfluidics for personalized medicine and drug delivery. Prerequisites: 14:125:303 or 14:650:312.

Code

14:125:465

Credits

3

Subject

Biomedical Engineering