Author: Lawrence Kulinsky

Our team had a game night after the group meeting on Halloween on October 31, 2023.

Zarya Rajestari presented in front of a group of 270 undergraduate engineering EECS students on October 16, 2023. She discussed her upbringing, education, travels and aspiration to help others in inventing and implementing biomedical technology as an entrepreneur – a journey she continues as a recent NSF iCorps graduate, a winner of the NSF “Spirit of iCorps Award” and a graduate Fellow of the Beall Applied Innovation Center. Students were inspired by Zarya’s story and her call to them to pursue their dreams.

 

BiNoM Lab welcomes Tair Kuzhekov who joins the team as an undergraduate researcher. Tair will contribute his expertise to biotechnology projects.

Our group and friends enjoyed a great evening with food, music, bonfire, games, and laughter at Corona del Mar State Beach on Saturday, September 30, 2023. It was a good way to celebrate the start of the academic year.

Prof. Kulinsky, Zarya, and Henry attended the World Congress on Micro and Nano Manufacturing (WCMNM 2023) in Evanston, IL which took place between September 18 and September 21, 2023.  Henry presented our work “Electrokinetic Manipulation of Biological Cells Towards Biotechnology Applications”, while Zarya presented the “Study of the Immersed Microfluidic Spinning Toward Tissue Engineering Applications”. Both Zarya and Henry did a great job! Zarya was one of the top student presenters and she was recognized by the “Best Student Presentation Honorable Mention Award”! Congratulations to both, Zarya and Henry! It was a great event, filled with interesting talks, and good discussions, and we had fun, including meeting John Golden who is now a graduate student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and we had an unforgettable dinner cruise on Lake Michigan!

Our paper “Nitrogen-functionalized graphene quantum dot incorporated GelMA microgels as fluorescent 3D-tissue Constructs” produced in collaboration with the research team at Tec de Monterrey has been published in “Nanoscale” journal. The cover art of the journal issue featured this work. Congratulations to Aida who is the first author of this publication!

Biopolymer microgels present many opportunities in biomedicine and tissue engineering. To understand their in vivo behavior in therapeutic interventions, long-term monitoring is critical, which is usually achieved by incorporating fluorescent materials within the hydrogel matrix. Current research is limited due to issues concerning the biocompatibility and instability of the conventional fluorescent species, which also tend to adversely affect the bio-functionality of the hydrogels. Here, we introduce a microfluidic-based approach to generate nitrogen-functionalized graphene quantum dot (NGQD) incorporated gelatin methacryloyl (GelMA) hydrogel microspheres, capable of long-term monitoring while preserving or enhancing the other favorable features of 3D cell encapsulation. A multilayer droplet-based microfluidic device was designed and fabricated to make monodisperse NGQD-loaded GelMA hydrogel microspheres encapsulating skeletal muscle cells (C2C12). Control over the sizes of microspheres could be achieved by tuning the flow rates in the microfluidic device. Skeletal muscle cells encapsulated in these microgels exhibited high cell viability from day 1 (82.9 ± 6.50%) to day 10 (92.1 ± 3.90%). The NGQD-loaded GelMA microgels encapsulating the cells demonstrated higher metabolic activity compared to the GelMA microgels. The presence of sarcomeric α-actin was verified by immunofluorescence staining on day 10. A fluorescence signal was observed from the NGQD-loaded microgels during the entire period of the study. The investigation reveals the advantages of integrating NGQDs in microgels for non-invasive imaging and monitoring of cell-laden microspheres and presents new opportunities for future therapeutic applications.

Our team has started a collaboration with scientists from the BioMass and BioDiversity Team at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) to utilize the guided dielectrophoretic microassembly for electrokinetic selection and propulsion of biological entities for application in bioenergy and biofabriaction.

The effort on the UC Irvine side is led by Prof. Kulinsky and his graduate student Henry Yan.

 

We did it! The intense 7-week long NSF iCorps program is over and the results are in: Team POCket Diagnostics composed of the Entrepreneurial Lead Zarya Rajestari, the Technical Lead Lawrence Kulinsky, and the Industrial Mentor Richard Henson is recognized with the “Spirit of NSF iCorps” Award 2023 that reflects the enthusiasm, hard work, and determination (as well as flexibility) in pursuit of the goals of commercialization of our product. We conducted over 130 customer interviews ( more than any team in our 24-team cohort), and attended numerous in-person events, meetings, and conferences, to quickly become experts in the latest advances in point-of-care human and veterinary medical platforms. We pivoted our value proposition several times to find the most promising niche for our platform – at-home testing for pet owners to supplement veterinary tele-visits. The biggest kudos and recognition goes to Zarya for her spark and indomitable spirit! This is a very appropriate award for our rising star!

During the course of the NSF iCorps customer discovery program, Zarya Rajestari and Prof. Kulinsky attended numerous exhibitions, events, and conferences to learn the latest advances in the field of veterinary medicine and diagnostics (to clarify commercialization prospects of the point-of-care diagnostic platform in the field of veterinary medicine). In July of 2023, they attended the American Veterinary Medical Association conference in Denver, CO, and the American Association of Clinical Chemistry in Anaheim, CA.

Several teams of high school students (in-person and online) participated in research training on dielectrophoretic microassembly at the BiNoM Lab this summer (July and August) under the direction of Prof. Kulinsky and the mentorship of Henry Yan. Students learned experimental techniques as well as the theoretical background of miniaturization science, microfabrication, and electrokinetics. At the end of their program, students gave impressive enthusiastic, and compelling presentations outlining their acquired knowledge and skills.

Zarya Rajestari and Prof. Kulinsky were awarded a National Science Foundation grant to commercialize a point-of-care personalized diagnostic system that incorporates the smartphone as the main component in the control, observation, analysis, and result distribution system. This Customer Discovery program is an intense 7-week boot camp run by the iCorps team (https://new.nsf.gov/funding/initiatives/i-corps) where Zarya is the Entrepreneurial Lead, Prof, Kulinsky is the Technical Lead, and an experienced engineer and entrepreneur Richard W. Henson  (https://www.linkedin.com/in/ richardwhenson/)  is the Industrial Mentor.

Congratulations to Tuo Zhou who was awarded the regalia of Doctor of Philosophy during the UC Irvine’s Commencement Ceremony on June 17, 2023. Prof. Kulinsky placed the ceremonial hood on Tuo at the stage of Bren Events Center in front of thousands of faculty, students, and guests. Congratulations, Dr. Tuo Zhou! May the Force be With You!

BiNoM lab is happy to welcome undergraduate researchers Brion Song and Addison Rushing. Brion is working on CD fluidics projects, while Addison will help with our tissue engineering research.

 

BiNoM team celebrated the successes of the ending academic year and the beginning of the summer during our potluck beach party on May 21, 2023 at Corona del Mar State Beach. We enjoyed ourselves with good food, including marshmallows on a pit fire, good cheer, music, and games. We also celebrated new milestones for our lab members. For example, John Golden was admitted to the University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign graduate program that he will start in September. Thank you, John, for several years of your hard work and productive research as a part of the BiNoM team!

The BiNoM undergraduate researchers John Golden, Ani Margasahayam, Dean Zepeda, and Josh Varela who were sponsored by the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP) presented posters of their research “Novel manufacturing technique for PDMS adhesive labels and application” and “Designing Case and Stopping Mechanism for Portable MiniDisc Immunoassay Platform”, respectively. We are proud of the great work done by our talented researchers and their graduate student mentors Zarya and Henry.

The undergraduate symposium conducted at the University of California, Irvine (May 16-19, 2023) was an opportunity to introduce our research to the Anteater community and many visitors. We had a chance to reconnect with old friends visiting our research booth.

BiNoM Lab graduate researcher Zarya Rajestari was recognized by two prestigious fellowships.

She was selected as the 2023 recipient of the Pia Gratton Graduate Fellowship in recognition of Zarya’s excellent academic accomplishments, impressive contributions to the university, and dedication to the mentorship of undergraduate students.

Additionally, Zarya was selected as a UCI Beall Applied Innovation’s Graduate Innovation Fellow. The Graduate Innovation Fellowship will run from July 2023 to June 2024 during which time Zarya will participate in the program that trains fellows in entrepreneurship and commercialization of their ideas.

Finally, Zarya Rajestari passed her Preliminary Exam in April with flying colors.

Congratulations, Zarya on all your achievements!

BiNoM Lab made a trip to Renaissance Pleasure Fair and it was fun!

BiNoM Lab welcomes undergraduate researchers Nishali Desai and Harbour Li. Harbour will help with electrokinetic micro and nano assembly research, while Nishali will be focusing her efforts on biotechnology developments, including novel tissue engineering approaches.

Our latest research results demonstrate that we can control the rate of propagation of the liquid meniscus on CD – a slowdown that can lead to enhancement in the sensitivity of the assays.

S. Peshin, J. Golden, B. Gan, C. Mast, and L. Kulinsky, “Controlling the advancement of the liquid front of the nitrocellulose membrane assay under the influence of the centrifugal force on the Lab-on-a-Disc platform”, Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical, 386:133735 (2023)

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0925400523004501?utm_campaign=STMJ_AUTH_SERV_PUBLISHED&utm_medium=email&utm_acid=32944581&SIS_ID=&dgcid=STMJ_AUTH_SERV_PUBLISHED&CMX_ID=&utm_in=DM355265&utm_source=AC_

BiNoM Lab hosted a visit from freshmen engineering students taking Engineering 7B “Introduction to Engineering”. Zarya Rajestari demonstrated the operation of the centrifugal microfluidic platforms, introduced students to laboratory equipment in the BiNoM lab, and shared our enthusiasm for the challenges and rewards of research projects. Zarya is a Mentor in the UROP Research Discovery Program for the winter and spring 2023 quarters.

Congratulations to Snehan – a lead author of the newest work on the development of integrated technology for sample preparation (red blood cells sedimentation) and reciprocation-based bioassays on the centrifugal microfluidic (CD) platform that was published yesterday in Sensors journal.

S. Peshin, M. Madou, and L. Kulinsky, “Integrating Bio-Sensing Array with Blood Plasma Separation on a Centrifugal Platform”, Sensors, 23 [3], 1710 (2023)

https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/23/3/1710

The novel Immersed Microfluidic Spinning technology has been developed in our BiNoM lab in partnership with Prof. Rahim Esfandyarpour’s Laboratory for Integrated Nano Bio Electronics Innovation. Fabrication of micro- and nanofibers is critical for a wide range of applications from microelectronics to biotechnology. Alginate microfibers with diameters of tens to hundreds of microns play an important role in tissue engineering and fibers of these diameters are impossible to fabricate via electrospinning and could only be produced via fluidic spinning. Typically, microfluidic spinning based on photopolymerization produces fibers that are not easily dissolvable, while fluidic spinning with chemical cross-linking employs complex setups of microfabricated chips or coaxial needles, aimed at precise control of the fiber diameter, but introduces significant cost and complexity to the microfluidic setup. We demonstrate the immersed microfluidic spinning where a calcium alginate microfiber is produced via displacement of alginate solution through a single needle that is immersed in a cross-linking bath of calcium chloride solution. The resulting diameter of the fiber is characterized, and fiber diameter and topology of the deposited fiber are related to the concentration of the alginate solution (2, 4, and 6 wt%), needle gauge (30g, 25g, and 20g), the volumetric flow rate of the alginate solution (1 ml/min, 2 ml/min, and 2.7 ml/min). The resulting fiber diameter is smaller than the internal diameter of the needle and this dependence is explained by the continuity of the flow and increased rate of fall of the liquid jet upon its issuing from the needle. The fiber diameter (demonstrated diameter of fibers ranges from 100 microns to 1 mm) depends weakly on the volumetric flow rate and depends strongly on the needle diameter. It also seems that for smaller needle sizes greater concentration of alginate results in smaller diameter fibers and that this trend is not evident as needle diameter is increased. In terms of the topology of the deposited fiber, the higher wt% alginate fiber produces larger loops, while the smaller wt% alginate solution yields a denser topology of the overlaid fiber loops. These fibers can be dissolved in DMEM/EDTA/DSC solution in 20-30 minutes (depending on the fiber diameter), leaving behind the hollow channels in the hydrogel matrix. We believe that the demonstrated simple setup of the immersed microfluidic spinning of the calcium alginate microfibers will be useful for creating tissue constructs, including vascularized tissue implants.

The technology we have developed is reported in the most recent issue of Micromachines journal:

https://www.mdpi.com/2072-666X/14/2/318

US Patent Office has issued a patent US 11,534,832 B2 “Selective Laser Sintering Using Functional Inclusions Dispersed in the Matrix Material Being Created” on the novel additive manufacturing technology that allows for the creation of various functionally graded materials using powder bed additive manufacturing processes such as Selective Laser Sintering (SLS)

https://patents.google.com/patent/US20160354840A1/en?inventor=Lawrence+Kulinsky

Prof. Kulinsky has been nominated and was honored to accept a position as an Associate Editor of the Journal of Micro- and Nano- Nano-Manufacturing of the American Society of Mechanical Engineering.

The Journal of Micro and Nano-Manufacturing provides a forum for the rapid dissemination of original theoretical and applied research in the areas of micro- and nano-manufacturing that are related to process innovation, accuracy, and precision, throughput enhancement, material utilization, compact equipment development, environmental and life-cycle analysis, and predictive modeling of manufacturing processes with feature sizes less than one hundred micrometers. Papers addressing special needs in emerging areas, such as biomedical devices, drug manufacturing, water and energy, are also encouraged.

https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/micronanomanufacturing/pages/about

Students of Prof. Kulinsky’s BiNoM Lab and of Prof. Velez Cuervo’s 3M Lab joined one afternoon in December to eat pizza and have fun playing charades and other games. Everyone had fun!

Our extensive review of valves and microvalves on the centrifugal fluidic platforms was published in Sensors on November 18, 2022.

Congratulations to Snehan who lead this considerable effort!

Peshin, M. Madou, and L. Kulinsky, “Microvalves for Applications in Centrifugal Microfluidics”, Sensors, 22 [22], 8955 (2022)

https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/22/22/8955

We had a lot to celebrate this November – old friendships and new beginnings, the joining of a new group of researchers to our lab, and three of our senior graduate students – Snehan, Tuo, and Alfonso defending their PhDs in October and November of 2022.

We got lucky with the weather in Mason Park and old friends and colleagues – Prof. Marc Madou and Drs. Sasha Perebikovsky and Michiel Kosters were able to join and that made our gathering even more special!

We are proud and happy to share the news that Snehan Peshin (who performed his research on novel techniques and capabilities of point of care Lab-on-a-Disc platform), Tuo Zhou (who developed and  researched the guided electrokinetic micro- and nanoassembly), and Alfonso Shin (who has developed a novel RNA based assay with enhanced selectivity) defended their PhDs in October and November of 2022.

Congratulations to Snehan, Tuo, and Alfonso!

We wish you continued success!

This month (October 2022) we are welcoming new students as members of our family – graduate students Joseph Kalaus and Tim (TJ) Morse and undergraduate students Chris Collins, Anirudn (Ani) Margasahayam, Joshua Charles Varela, and Dean Zepeda. Students will conduct their research on biotechnology platform development as well as on electrokinetic guided micro- and nano-assembly.

Congratulations to Henry Yan who passed his prelim exam on October 14, 2022!

Great job, Henry!

We are happy to announce that a comprehensive review of electrified Lab on Disc platforms presented by our team and collaborators has been published in this month’s “Biosensors and Bioelectronics” Journal. Congratulations to the authors!

Kordzadeh-Kermani V, Madadelahi M, Ashrafizadeh SN, Kulinsky L, Martinez-Chapa SO, Madou MJ. Electrified lab on disc systems: A comprehensive review on electrokinetic applications. Biosensors and Bioelectronics. 2022 Jun 26:114381

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bios.2022.114381

 

Lawrence Kulinsky, adjunct professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, has been awarded the Kornel F. Ehmann Manufacturing Medal from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). Kulinsky attended ASME’s Manufacturing Science and Engineering Conference this June at Purdue University. There he received the medal, which recognizes the best original paper submitted to ASME journals in the field of micro- or nano-manufacturing.

Kulinsky’s prize-winning paper was titled “Fabrication of Carbon Nanotube Gas Sensor Using Stepwise Dielectrophoretic Deposition onto Interdigitated Pyrolyzed Carbon Electrodes.” The research is based on guided electrokinetic micro-and nano-assembly – a technology developed in Kulinsky’s Bio- Nano- Microfabrication (BiNoM) Lab at UC Irvine. The guided electrokinetic assembly enables guided non-contact rapid assembly of micro- and nano-sized objects, which has wide-ranging applications from nano-electronics to biotechnology. In addition to micro- and nano-manufacturing, Kulinsky’s research also includes hybrid manufacturing, microfluidics, electrokinetic phenomena, personalized diagnostics, and drug delivery.

https://engineering.uci.edu/news/2022/7/kulinsky-honored-asme-kornel-f-ehmann-manufacturing-medal

We are happy to welcome Adrian Rhodes during the summer as a research trainee. Adrian is an undergraduate student at Texas A&M University and he participates in the Pathways to Accelerate Computing and Engineering Doctorates (PACE) Program. Adrian will be studying the Artificial Intelligence applications toward guided electrokinetic microassembly. This technology can be applied to cell manipulation and tissue engineering – applications that interest Adrian.

Our BiNoM Lab is happy to welcome a talented group of Saddleback Community College students Trevor Gerdes (picture on the left), Emilia Leverick (picture in the center), and Sepehr Farahmand (picture on the right). They are eager to obtain research experience in our lab on the guided electrokinetic microassembly before they join the University of California campuses and California State University system as junior transfer students.

Congratulations to our undergraduate researchers who participated in the 29th Annual Undergraduate Research Symposium at UCI that took place on May 20-21, 2022! Christian, Bryan, and John presented the talk “Analysis of Fluidic Motion for the Comparison of Saturation with Respect to Time for Porous Membranes” which described their research conducted in conjunction with Snehan Peshin, while Ariel presented the talk entitled “Spinning the Tall Tale: Development of a Carbon Fiber-based Platform for Neural Growth Study” based on his and Hannah’s research conducted with assistance from Tuo.

Congratulations to all the authors of the work and especially to the first author Yujia Liu on having our work on a novel elastic membrane-based recirculation method on CD published today in “Biomicrofluidics” journal.

https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0089112

Congratulations to Snehan Peshin on passing his qualifying exam!

Snehan will continue his PhD studies focusing on the interrelation between mass transport and reaction kinetics with application to lateral flow assays on centrifugal microfluidic platforms.

On Sunday, April 3, our group gathered at the Corona del Mar state beach to relax and enjoy good weather, merry company, delicious food (potluck!) and a spectacular sunset.

This time, it was an extra special since we were celebrating the “retirement” (ha-ha – nobody believes it – Marc will be just busier) of a friend, a colleague, and a collaborator Chancellor’s Professor and Distinguished Professor Marc Madou. In addition to Prof. Kulinsky’s and Prof. Madou’s family and friends we had old friends visit us from Saddleback College, Irvine Valley College, and other friends, colleagues, and collaborators from as far away as Florida. We also had colleagues from the University of California, Irvine joining us – Dean Magnus Egerstedt, Professor Plamen Atanassov, Professor Phil Felgner, and Professor Camilo Velez Cuervo.

We also celebrated the (early) birthday of Zarya! There is nothing better than to enjoy these milestones among friends.

Matt presented his work on the electrokinetic guidance of Carbon Nanotubes (CNTs) to heal the broken microelectrodes at the I2M2 (International Institution for MicroManufacturing) student colloquium that was conducted online.

Matt’s presentation was well received and he answered questions from the audience of graduate students and senior researchers in micromanufacturing field.

Our group welcomes four graduate students: Aida Taravatfard and Zarya Rajestari – Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (MAE) students have started their first year of doctoral studies at the University of California, Irvine – they will be specializing in the advanced medical diagnostics on the centrifugal microfluidic (CD) platforms; Snehan Peshin (MAE) and Alfonso Shin (Biomedical Engineering) have been graduate students of BioMEMs Lab for three years and they are bringing their experience and expertise to BiNoM lab now due to retirement of Prof. Marc Madou – Snehan specializing in mass transport on CD platforms and he is now combining the analysis of mass transport with reaction kinetics, while Alfonso is developing a new type of fast and sensitive biological test for viral infections (including the development of COVID-19 assay).

Congratulations to Tuo Zhou on winning the prestigious Henry Samueli Endowed Fellowship along with ten other graduate engineering students at the University of California, Irvine.

“The Samueli Endowed Fellowship is one of the most coveted fellowships we have,” said Fadi Kurdahi, associate dean for graduate and professional studies and professor of electrical engineering and computer science.

We are happy that hard work and Tuo’s enthusiasm for research have been recognized!

Congratulation to Tuo Zhou who passed his qualifying exam to continue his PhD research in electrokinetic micro- and nano-assembly!

Job well done!

We are happy to welcome new students to our lab! Yusi Xing is an M.S. graduate student who will help to advance our AI and microassambly research; Hannah Greene is an undergraduate with an interest and background in life sciences and will participate in several biotechnology research projects; Boyang (Bryan) Gan is an undergraduate researcher who will contribute to our microfluidic research.

Our team is growing in skills, knowledge, and energy!

Our lab has developed a novel method for the non-contact handling of biological cells during multiple exchanges of media. This technology is especially relevant for in-vitro fertilization or other processes where the cells are fragile and multiple media exchanges are required.

The patent US 11,142,738 B2 was issued on October 12, 2021.

Congratulations to Matt Michaels and Tuo Zhou, who, together with collaborators from Prof. Al Faruque’s Embedded and Cyber-Physical Systems Lab at the University of California, Irvine obtained some promising initial results for Artificial Intelligence guided microassembly. The peer-reviewed conference paper “Establishing Digital Recognition and Identification of Microscopic Objects for Implementation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) Guided Microassembly” by Tuo Zhou, Shih-Yuan Yu, Matthew Michaels, Fangzhou Du, Lawrence Kulinsky, and Mohammad Abdullah Al Faruque has been presented by Matt Michaels at the World Congress on Micro and Nano Manufacturing that took place from September 21 through September 23, 2021.

Professor Kulinsky has been elected President of the International Institution for Micro-Manufacturing (I2M2) https://sites.google.com/i2m2.org/home/. In his new role, Dr. Kulinsky will help to lead a large community of experts in the field of micro- and nano-manufacturing in collaboration and sharing of knowledge and insights to develop novel fabrication, assembly, simulation, and metrology techniques and technologies for a wide variety of applications from nanoelectronics to biotechnology.

September 19, 2021 students from Kulinsky BiNoM Lab and past and present students from Madou BioMEMs Lab celebrated the start of the academic year 2021-2022. We met on Crystal Cove beach around the fire pits – we sing songs, played games, ate good food, and enjoyed each other’s company. Our past students and many friends joined us with their families. This was a very memorable day!

BiNoM Lab welcomes a new graduate student this summer: a PhD candidate Henry Yan (enrolled in the Materials and Manufacturing Technology (MMT) program).

Henry will focus on furthering micro- and nano-manufacturing via electrokinetic assembly with Artificial Intelligence guidance.

 

Congratulations!

We have two new publications in the Journal of Micro- and Nano-Manufacturing!

Today, JMNM published Prof. Kulinsky’s piece entitled “Personal Observations of the Effects of COVID-19 Pandemic on Micromanufacturing Research and Education in the United States” published in the section “Expert View” of JMNM Volume 9, 2021.

Also, another manuscript entitled “Fabrication of Carbon Nanotube Gas Sensor Using Stepwise Dielectrophoretic Deposition Onto Interdigitated Pyrolyzed Carbon Electrodes” with Taajza Singleton as the first author was also published today in the JMNM Volume 9, 2021. This publication describes the use of step-wise dielectrophoretic CNT deposition to create conductive CNT bridges that led to the implementation of the nitrogen gas sensor.

 

Our lab has developed a novel additive manufacturing process that, for the first time. allows for the fabrication of so-called “regular foam” – an optimal cellular structure that consists of the material filled with non-connected pores of uniform diameter. This type of structure results in the optimal combination of strength and light weight.

The patent US 11,001,002 B2 “Powder Bed Additive Manufacturing Method of Fabricating a Porous Matrix” was issued on May 11, 2021

Congratulations Matt and Tuo on the new study of “Guided Healing of Damaged Microelectrodes via Electrokinetic Assembly of Conductive Carbon Nanotube Bridges” just published in Micromachines journal https://www.mdpi.com/2072-666X/12/4/405/htm

This work explores the electrokinetic nanoassembly of carbon nanotubes from the suspension to heal the damaged microelectrodes. A new world record was established as we have built the longest conductive CNT bridge over 170 microns long. The prior record of the conductive CNT bridge over 75 microns long also belongs to our group https://www.mdpi.com/2072-666X/11/4/371 in a work performed last year.

This quarter we are welcoming two new undergraduate students – John T Golden and Weixiao (Tom) Wang. They will strengthen our microfluidic team in experimental/fabrication skills and in performing multiphysics simulations.

Congratulations to our Senior Design Team for winning the Dean’s Choice Award at the Engineering Winter Design Review that took place last Friday, March 12, 2021.

You can see the team and their Automated Colorimetric Bioassay Platform that detects malaria in the patient’s sample by observing the color change of the solution here https://axacosta.wixsite.com/automatedbioassay2. The system is controlled by the Arduino platform and is based on the use of cheap ubiquitous disposable syringes and non-disposable hardware consisting of inexpensive parts such as servomotors and 3D printed fixtures. This design is the enhancement of the original system that was constructed by our group several years ago (see post of Sept 18, 2018).

This quarter BiNoM Lab welcomes a new undergraduate researcher! Christian Mast has experience in MatLab programming. He will contribute to our research on Artificial Intelligence (AI) – based Micro- and Nano-Manufacturing research and will also assist with COMSOL simulation of electrokinetic microfluidics.

Welcome, Christian!

We are happy to announce that a new graduate student, Matthew Michaels joined BiNoM lab in January of 2021. Welcome, Matt!

Congratulations to Tuo, Jingyuan, and Ethan!

Their work on pioneering template-based guided electrokinetic micro- and nano- assembly has been published in high impact ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces journal:

Zhou, J. Chen, E. Kropp, and L. Kulinsky, “Guided Electrokinetic Assembly of Polystyrene Microbeads onto Photopatterned Carbon Electrode Arrays,” ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, 121 [31], 35647 (2020).

Assembly of microdevices from constituent parts currently relies on slow serial steps via direct assembly processes such as pick-and-place operations. Template Electrokinetic Assembly (TEA), a guided, non-contact assembly process, is presented in this work as a promising alternative to serial assembly processes. To characterize the process and its implementation of electrokinetic dielectrophoretic and electroosmotic phenomena, studies were conducted to examine the assembly of polymer microparticles at specific locations on glassy carbon interdigitated electrode arrays (IDEAs). The IDEAs are coated with a layer of lithographically patterned resist, so that when an AC electric field is applied to the IDEA, microparticles suspended in the aqueous solution are attracted to the open regions of the electrodes not covered by photoresist. The interplay between AC electroosmosis and dielectrophoretic forces guides 1- micron and 5-micron diameter polystyrene beads to assemble in regions, or “wells,” uncovered by photoresist atop the electrodes. Permanent entrapment of the microparticles is then demonstrated via the electropolymerization process of the conducting polymer polypyrrole.

 

Congratulations to Tuo, Ethan, and Jingyuan on having their paper accepted by Micromachines journal.

Zhou, E. Kropp, J. Chen, and L. Kulinsky, “Step-Wise Deposition Process for Dielectrophoretic Formation of Conductive 50-Micron-Long Carbon Nanotube Bridges,” Micromachines, 11 [4], 371 (2020)

The work describes a breakthrough step-wise dielectrophoretic (DEP) deposition process that for the first time allows alignment and deposition of conductive CNT wires longer than 50 microns. The key is the alteration of DEP CNT deposition step and drying steps where the drying step causes the surface tension to pull CNT together, producing a conductive piece of wire that now allows continuation of DEP-based building of a long conductive wire.

Our work “Electrokinetic Propulsion of Polymer Microparticulates Along Glassy Carbon Electrode Array” has been published in the Journal of Micro- and Nano-Manufacturing:

Cortez, K. Damyar, R. Gao, T. Zhou, and L. Kulinsky, “Electrokinetic Propulsion of Polymer Microparticulates Along Glassy Carbon Electrode Array,” Journal of Micro- and Nano-Manufacturing, 8 [2], 024504 (2020).

Great job – Jennifer, Kimia, Nick, and Tuo!

As a result of our long-term collaboration with a wonderful team of Prof. Sergio Martinez Chapa from Tec de Monterrey we published two works on AC Electroosmosis fluidic pumping where the underpinning of the hydrodynamics of this phenomenon is discussed:

Vazquez-Pinon, B. Pramanick, F.G. Ortega-Gama, V.H. Perez-Gonzalez, L. Kulinsky, M.J. Madou, H. Hwang, and S. O. Martinez-Chapa, “Hydrodynamic channeling as a controlled flow reversal mechanism for bidirectional AC electroosmotic pumping using glassy carbon microelectrode arrays,” Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering, 29 [7], 075007 (2019)

Vazquez-Pinon, H. Hwang, M. Madou, L. Kulinsky, and S. O. Martinez-Chapa, “Comparison of two-dimensional and three-dimensional carbon electrode geometries affecting bi-directional electroosmotic pumping,” Journal of Micro- and Nano-Manufacturing, 7 [2], 024510 (2019)

The Micromachines journal just published a study by Christopher Lim and Yangchung Lee: C. Lim, Y. Lee, and L. Kulinsky, “Fabrication of a Malaria-Ab ELISA Bioassay Platform with Utilization of Syringe-Based and 3D Printed Assay Automation,” Micromachines, 9 [10], 502 (2018). Congratulations on a job well done!

Professor Kulinsky designed and taught a week-long course “Fundamental and Applications of Microfluidics” June 25-29, 2018 in conjunction with his Tec de Monterrey colleagues Prof. Gallo and Prof. Perz. The course presented a theoretical basis of microfluidics as well as hands-on fabrication tutorials for lab-on-chip and lab-on-disc microfluidic devices to a group of more than 20 faculty members from Tecnologico campuses. The topics included:

• Course Overview and Introduction to Microfluidics
• Introduction to Fabrication of Fluidic Chips
• Fabrication of PDMS-based Lab-on-a-chip system via Soft Lithography
• Fundamentals of Microfluidics
• Creation of microelectrode-based fluidic systems for Dielectrophoresis
• Data collection for Lab-on-a-chip systems (pressure gradient based, dielectrophoretic, and centrifugal)
• Applications of Centrifugal Microfluidics

Some evenings participants watched soccer games and relaxed over music, songs, and good conversation.

It was a very memorable event.

Congratulations on the acceptance of a manuscript to the Micromachines journal

Congratulations to Maria Bauer on having her work on 3D printed Point-of-Care (POC) diagnostic assays “Fabrication of a Lab-on-Chip Device Using Material Extrusion (3D Printing) and Demonstration via Malaria-Ab ELISA,” published in Micromachines journal: M. Bauer and L. Kulinsky, “Fabrication of a Lab-on-Chip Device Using Material Extrusion (3D Printing) and Demonstration via Malaria-Ab ELISA,” Micromachines, 9 [1], 27 (2018)