The 3rd Workshop on Microfluidics was held at the National Center for Research on Energy and Materials (CNPEM) in Campinas, Sao Paulo (Brazil) from July 18-19, 2013. Since 2011, the workshop has brought together young students, researchers and companies from different states of Brazil to discuss topics related to the fundamentals, fabrication technologies, innovations and applications on microfluidic science. In this third edition, the Workshop was attended by around 160 people from Universities (66%), research centers (23%) and companies (11%). As already observed in previous years, the Workshop has demonstrated the state of the art of microfluidics in Brazil. This field has been spread out around different regions of the Brazil with great contributions on fabrication technologies well as innovative developments and applications on microfluidic platforms. For the coming years, we hope that the Workshop will continue to receive great attention from the community in order to contribute to the scientific growth related to the microfluidics in Brazil.
During the Workshop, we were pleased to select the presentation “Microfluidic formation of pDNA/cationic nonviral nanocarriers for in vitro gene delivery” to receive the RSC Publishing Prize for the best presentation. The work was presented by the graduated student Tiago A. Balbino and was supervised by Dr. Lucimara G. de La Torre, from the School of Chemical Engineering, State University of Campinas (UNICAMP). The work describes the microfluidic formation of nonviral systems for delivery of plasmid DNA (pDNA) using a hydrodynamic flow-focusing microfluidic device where the complexation between the pDNA and three different cationic nonviral nanocarriers: cationic liposomes, poly(ethylene imine), and peptide with nuclear localization signals were demonstrated.
On behalf of the organizing committee, I would like to thank the support received from the Royal Society of Chemistry.
Angelo Luiz Gobbi
Microfabrication Laboratory – LNNano
