Lab on a Chip Blog

In partnership with our new sponsor ALine Inc, we are thrilled to announce that Professor Jiashu Sun from the National Center for Nanoscience and Technology, China, has won the 2024 Lab on a Chip & ALine Inc Pioneers of Miniaturization Lectureship!

The Sun lab leverages interdisciplinary tools, including microfluidics, functional DNA materials, and machine learning, to develop low-cost, point-of-care, ultrasensitive assays for liquid biopsy. The lab has engineered a viscoelastic microfluidic platform for label-free, high-resolution isolation of circulating tumor cells and extracellular vesicles. Additionally, a thermophoretic microfluidic platform combined with functional DNA materials has been devised to directly profile proteins, nucleic acids, and glycans associated with extracellular vesicles in blood samples. The molecular signature of EVs provides valuable information for early diagnosis, classification, therapeutic monitoring, and prognosis of various cancers. The lab is committed to translating microfluidic research into practical applications that deliver real clinical impact.

Jiashu received her Ph.D. degree from the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Vanderbilt University in 2010 under the mentorship of Prof. Deyu Li. She joined the National Center for Nanoscience and Technology (NCNST), China as an Assistant Professor in 2011 and has been a Professor/Principal Investigator since 2016.

Thanks to this recent achievement, Jiashu is set to present at microTAS 2024 at 09:15 – 09:35 ET on Tuesday, 15 October on the topic of microfluidics for separation and molecular profiling of extracellular vesicles. Be sure not to miss her talk!

Read some of Jiashu Sun’s Lab on a Chip papers:

Label-free isolation of rare tumor cells from untreated whole blood by interfacial viscoelastic microfluidics

Hydraulic-electric analogy for design and operation of microfluidic systems

Hand-powered centrifugal microfluidic platform inspired by the spinning top for sample-to-answer diagnostics of nucleic acids

Lab on a Chip is so pleased to enter a new era of the Pioneers of Miniaturisation Lectureship with the announcement of ALine Inc. becoming our new sponsors! ALine’s vision is a world where microfluidics-based diagnostic and research tools are widely available to promote better stewardship of our lives and our planet.  ALine think rigorously, and focus on the “why”. Engineering programs are executed with transparency and urgency, and documented with clarity.  Optimism and enthusiasm inform our day-to-day work, while ALine strategize to minimize the impact of potential roadblocks. ALine’s core values: make a difference, and continuously improve.

You can find both the Royal Society of Chemistry (Booth 61) and ALine Inc (Booth 17) teams at MicroTAS in Montréal in a few weeks’ time. We are looking forward to meeting you all!

ALine is also proud to sponsor the Women’s Evening again this year. 

Find ALine here on LinkedIn 

We sat down with Dr Stefano Begolo – Director of Microfluidic Engineering at ALine – to find out more about why and how ALine are leading the charge in the commercialisation of microfluidic technology and their sponsorship of the Lectureship.

LOC: What is the mission of ALine and what value can you provide to the microfluidics community?

SB: ALine’s mission is to provide expert engineered solutions for commercial-ready microfluidic products & devices that realize our client’s dreams of impacting society with products that improve our health and the health of the planet. Over its 21 year history, ALine has built a reputation as a premier provider of microfluidic solutions over a large range of applications. Our team of experts have solved microfluidic design requirements for applications as diverse as ultra short pathlength cuvettes for real-time monitoring of oxygen exchange in red blood cells, single use IVD cartridges that operate without instrument support, to multiplexed fluid handling manifolds for long term cell culture, and wearables for industrial safety.

Our expert microfluidic solutions, which includes concept development and evaluation, engineered prototypes for functional evaluation and refinement, and pilot manufacture and assembly, has enabled our customers, in aggregate, to win 3.1$ billion in follow-on funding to support commercialization. This is a testament to the value ALine brings to the community in delivering commercially viable solutions for the complex requirements of microfluidic applications.

LOC: What do you value about Lab on a Chip / Pioneers of Miniaturization Lectureship and why you are happy to support us in this new partnership?

SB: ALine is a science and engineering based organization. Staying at the forefront of the field and understanding new approaches and capabilities impacts how well we are able to serve our clients and the microfluidics community. This is why we are happy to participate in supporting the Pioneers in Miniaturization Lectureship. For example, through our interactions with this community, we have expanded our offering to include not only our unique laminate fluid circuit technology, but also plastic micromilling, tool making for injection molding to achieve features at small as 5 microns, embossing, and the development of alternatives to PDMS-based devices.

LOC: What makes this community so special?

SB: This community is special because of the breadth of pioneering microfluidic applications and continued technological advancements that expand microfluidics into even more exotic applications. This reflects the diversity of the community and its embrace of researchers from all over the world.

Dr. Stefano Begolo is the Director of Microfluidic Engineering at ALine. His role is focused on structuring and managing ALine’s engineering and manufacturing programs, ensuring science and engineering meet product requirements. Since joining in 2015, Dr. Begolo and his team have expanded ALine’s product development offering by bringing in house CNC machining, injection molding, embossing and die cutting capabilities, in addition to expanding ALine’s laser cutting and lamination techniques. He has also driven the implementation of new program management and tracking tools that have streamlined operations and supported the expansion of ALine’s capabilities to support pilot manufacturing of commercial microfluidic products.

Prior to joining ALine, he completed postdoctoral training at the California Institute of Technology, where he leveraged the patented SlipChip technology for medical diagnostics application at the point of care. He earned his Ph.D. in Physics in 2011 from the Université Pierre et Marie Curie (Paris VI). He obtained a B.S. in Material Science and a M.S. in Material Science and Engineering from the University of Padua (Italy). His graduate work focused on the use of droplet microfluidics for detecting DNA and proteins, and on the development of innovative technologies for the production of microfluidic devices. Dr Begolo has expertise in the design and development of 3D printed microfluidic components, and specialized skills in embossing, lithography, and UV cure laminate devices. His materials expertise ensures the incorporation of surfaces compatible with a variety of biomolecular interactions and specialized fluidic functions. He is co-author of ten publications and seven patents.

Dr. Stefano Begolo, and Mr. Antonio Pineda will be at MicroTAS 2024 all week and look forward to meeting you!

Organ-on-a-chip technology has rapidly gained prominence and relevance at the interface between biology and engineering due to its burgeoning potential to revolutionise biomedical research and clinical applications. These micro-engineered devices mimic the physiological functions of human organs, providing powerful microfluidic platforms for disease modelling, drug testing and therapeutics, and personalised medicine.

In this Thematic Collection, led by Thought Leaders Séverine Le Gac, Roger Kamm, Yi-Chin Toh & Tae-Eun Park, we aim to highlight the most innovative and ground-breaking advancements in organ-on-a-chip technology and applications at the forefront of the field.

Submissions of interest will significantly build upon existing models and open new avenues of research and applications by providing cutting-edge solutions to pressing problems. In recognising the multidisciplinary nature and impact of organ-on-chips, we are emphasising the collaboration between academia, industry, and clinical partners and welcome contributions that demonstrate the translation of pioneering research into practical and clinical applications for human health and disease.

Topics of particular interest include, but are not limited to:

• Emerging therapies beyond small drugs
• New model designs
• Digital twins and artificial intelligence (AI) integration and analysis
• Advanced sensing and measurement technologies (integrated sensors, RNA Seq, proteomics, spatial omics, multi-omics, real-time measurements, etc.)
• Bioprinting techniques
• Standardisation
• Diverse cell types (cell lines, primary cells, iPSCs, ex vivo tissues)
• Multi-organ-on-chip and body-on-chip systems

This seminal collection will showcase select papers and their investigators that look towards the future – highlighting the most forward-thinking developments in the field of organ-on-a-chip technology.

We invite research and review papers in these and related topics. Accepted articles will be published in an online collection as soon as they are publishable and will be promoted extensively both as they are published and in the final collection.

The deadline for submission to this collection will be December 1^st, 2024. If you are interested in submitting a contribution, please do get in touch (LOC-RSC@rsc.org) to discuss this further.

📣 Exciting News from Lab on a Chip! 📣 We are thrilled to announce the opening of nominations for the annual and prestigious Pioneers of Miniaturisation Lectureship for 2024.

This annual award celebrates early to mid-career scientists who are within 15 years of their PhD and have demonstrated significant achievements in the field of miniaturised systems. It’s a fantastic opportunity for researchers to gain recognition for their innovative contributions to the community.

Key Benefits for the Awardee:

– An invitation to present a lecture at microTAS 2024 in Montréal, Canada taking place in October
– Up to $3,000 in funding to support travel and accommodation expenses

Nomination Deadline: June 14, 2024

For eligibility criteria and nomination details, please visit our website HERE

The winner will be carefully selected by the Lab on a Chip Editorial Board, based on their contributions and impact in the field via letters of recommendation, candidate CV and nomination form.

Help us celebrate the brilliance and strong impact of our scientific community by submitting your nominations today!

Bringing together multiple communities who are focused on developing and implementing diagnostic technologies for global health applications. This virtual workshop included communities that research, develop, and commercialized microfluidic technologies as well as public health and clinical professionals who strategize, implement, and evaluate new technologies and systems. Lab on a Chip was delighted to sponsor this event.

“We are grateful that this workshop was able to run as an online conference to bring together renowned researchers, entrepreneurs, and public health experts from across the world onto a single platform for learning and discussion of critical diagnostics topics. This year’s speaker and panel themes focused around sustainability, commercialization and delivery of global health diagnostics.

Our keynotes included Madhukar Pai (McGill University, CANADA), Maiwenn Kersuady-Kerhoas (Heriot-Watt University, UK), Umut Gurkan (Case Western Reserve University, USA), Tivani Mashamba-Thompson (University of Pretoria, South Africa), Bushan Toley (Papyrus Diagnostics, Indian Institute of Science, India), Catherine Klapperich (Boston Univeristy, USA), and Adriana Velazquez Berumen (World Health Organization, Switzerland).

We had 109 attendees joining from 6 continents, including 35 complementary attendees from the Global South thanks to the Purdue’s Global Engineering Program and Partnerships and Shah Family Global Innovation Lab which helped to sponsor the complementary registrations. And much thanks to RSC for the Lab on a Chip Poster Awards – I know the competition was tough and the awards mean a lot to the winners.” – Conference Chair Jacqueline Linnes

Congratulations to our Lab on a Chip poster prize winners Vanessa Ho at Imperial College London and Oshin Sharma at Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay!

Here is what Vanessa had to say about her work and the workshop:

What impact can your work have on the field and wider global health?
My research focuses on developing a microfluidic chip platform designed for quantifying individual cell-expressed microRNA molecules using a minimal number of cells, particularly beneficial for handling clinically scarce samples. This innovative tool integrates cell selection, isolation, lysis, and analysis within a single device. I have successfully demonstrated its efficacy in analysing microRNA levels across various cell types isolated from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patient samples, revealing insights into their responses to different stimuli. Additionally, the device exhibits sensitivity in measuring microRNA molecules in non-invasive nasal samples with limited quantities.

Beyond its current applications, this platform holds promise for the comprehensive study of various human diseases. Its adaptability allows for the analysis of diverse biological samples, including saliva and blood. This versatility is instrumental in advancing drug therapeutic approaches and precision medicine. The potential impact extends not only to enhancing our understanding of diseases but also to improving diagnostic and therapeutic strategies for better global health outcomes..

How did you benefit from attending the Global Health 2023 workshop?

I am grateful to the organisers for giving me the chance to participate in and present at the Global Health 2023 workshop. The workshop significantly broadened my perspective, particularly in terms of refining my platform to better serve users in less developed countries and incorporating sustainability considerations. Engaging with experts in the field from around the world was enlightening, as their insights provided valuable lessons for the further development of my project. Connecting with researchers in the global health community from diverse countries allowed me to gain a deeper understanding of their challenges and enriched my overall experience.

Lab on a Chip and Dolomite are delighted to announce the winner of the 2023 Pioneers of Miniaturization Lectureship, Professor David Issadore!

This Lectureship honours and supports the up and coming, next generation of scientists who have significantly contributed to the understanding or development of miniaturised systems.

The Issadore lab combines microelectronics, microfluidics, nanomaterials, and machine learning to solve big, currently intractable problems in healthcare. The lab develops new miniaturized platforms for the diagnosis of disease, new platforms to manufacture micro and nano-scale materials, and they dip their toes into an assortment of other areas where they can leverage micro and nano-scale engineering to improve healthcare. This work requires an interdisciplinary approach in which engineers, scientists, and physicians work together in teams. David has a PhD in applied physics from Harvard with Robert Westervelt, he completed post-doctoral training in the Systems Biology department at Mass General Hospital with Hakho Lee and Ralph Weissleder and has been on the faculty of Penn’s Bioengineering department since 2013.

Our Pioneers of Miniaturization Lectureship Winner is invited to speak at MicroTAS, and thus David will be presenting his talk at the MicroTAS 2023 meeting, 15-19^th October 2023.

We give our warmest congratulations to David on his achievement!

Read some of David Issadore’s recent Lab on a Chip papers below:

A web-based automated machine learning platform to analyze liquid biopsy data

Advancing microfluidic diagnostic chips into clinical use: a review of current challenges and opportunities

Diagnosis of traumatic brain injury using miRNA signatures in nanomagnetically isolated brain-derived extracellular vesicles

We are delighted to welcome:

• Professor Xingyu Jiang (SUSTech, China)
• Professor Amy Herr (UC Berkeley, USA)
• Professor Hongkai Wu (HKUST, Hong Kong)

as our newest Lab on a Chip Associate Editors! You can read more about them and their research focus below.

Amy Herr

John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Professor, Department of Bioengineering, 

University of California,  Berkeley, USA

Amy Herr is the John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Professor in the Department of Bioengineering , a Chan Zuckerberg (CZ) Biohub Investigator, and CTO of the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Network.

A major focus of the Herr lab is engineering innovation for analysis of complex biological systems — as is required to address questions important to both fundamental biological systems and applied clinical research. They employ a combination of approaches drawn from chemical engineering, mechanical engineering, and electrical engineering with strong foundations in biology, materials science, and analytical chemistry.  In essence, they strive to advance the “mathematization” of biology & medicine.  Their research projects span understanding fundamental transport to materials design to applications in life sciences tools and diagnostics.

Professor Herr’s research has been recognized by prominent international andnational organizations, including: 2018 Sciex Microscale Separations Innovation Medal, 2017 Georgina Sweet Lectureship from the Australian Research Council, 2016 Mid-career Achievement Award from the American Electrophoresis Society, 2015 Georges Guiochon Faculty Fellow from HPLC, 2012 Young Innovator Award from Analytical Chemistry/CBMS, 2011 NSF CAREER award, 2010 NIH New Innovator Award, 2010 Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship in chemistry, 2010 New Investigator Award in Analytical Chemistry from Eli Lilly & Co., and a 2009 Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Young Faculty Award. Her commitment to creating a strong professional community is reflected in recognition as: 2019 Award for Excellence in Postdoctoral Mentoring, Visiting Scientist & Posdoc. Assoc. at UC Berkeley, 2017 Berkeley Visionary Award from the City of Berkeley Chamber of Commerce, and 2007 Outstanding Mentor Award from Sandia National Labs.

Research Expertise and Interest
microfluidics, bioanalytical separations, diagnostics, electrokinetic transport, engineering design

Find out more on the Herr Lab website – Bioinstrumentation for Quantitative Biology & Medicine

Here are a selection of Amy’s most recent Lab on a Chip papers below:

• • • Multimodal detection of protein isoforms and nucleic acids from low starting cell numbers
    • Separation-encoded microparticles for single-cell western blotting
    • Mouse-to-mouse variation in maturation heterogeneity of smooth muscle cells

Xingyu Jiang

Chair Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering                                                                                                                                                                         Southern University of Science and Technology, China

Xingyu Jiang is a Chair Professor at the Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, China. He obtained his BS at the University of Chicago (1999) and PhD at Harvard University (Chemistry, 2004). In 2005, he joined the National Center for NanoScience and Technology/the University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He moved to the Southern University of Science and Technology in 2018. His research interests include microfluidics and nanomedicine and their applications in diagnostics, screening for therapeutics, as well as engineered tissues. He has over 300 publications in peer-reviewed journals. He was awarded the “Hundred Talents Plan” of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the National Science Foundation of China’s Distinguished Young Scholars Award, the Scopus Young Researcher Gold Award, and the Human Frontier Science Program Young Investigator Award. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (UK) and the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering.

Xingyu has been a committed member of the Lab on a Chip Editorial Board since 2020, and will now start handling papers for the journal.

Research Expertise and Interest
microfluidics & nanomedicine, and their applications in diagnostics, screening for therapeutics,  engineered tissues

Find out more on the Jiang lab website and follow @xingyu on Twitter

Here are a selection of Xingyu’s most recent Lab on a Chip papers below:

• • • Microfluidic on-chip valve and pump for applications in immunoassays
    • Wearable chem-biosensing devices: from basic research to commercial market
    • Hierarchically structured microchip for point-of-care immunoassays with dynamic detection ranges

Hongkai Wu

Professor,  Department of Chemistry, Department of Chemical & Biological Engineering

Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong

Hongkai Wu is a Professor in Department of Chemistry & Department of Chemical & Biological Engineering at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong, China. Dr. Wu received his BSc from University of Science and Technology of China in 1995 and Ph.D from Harvard University, USA in 2002. After working as a Postdoctoral Fellow at Stanford, he joined the faculty in Department of Chemistry in Tsinghua University, Beijing, China in 2005 and moved to HKUST as an Assistant Professor in 2007. In 2012, he was promoted to be an Associate Professor. From 2009 to 2015, he established a satellite laboratory in Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan, focusing on developing functional biomaterials.

Research at the Wu lab focuses on the interdisciplinary frontiers of microfluidics, bioanalytical science and materials chemistry. They use the technologies in MEMS, microfluidics, soft lithography, and surface chemistry to design and provide new tools for the applications and understanding of fundamentals in materials and biological sciences, including microfluidic chemical reactors, high throughput single-cell analysis and chemical separations.

Research Expertise and Interest
microfluidics, bioanalytical science, materials chemistry, single-cell analysis

Find out more on the Wu lab website 

Here are a selection of Hongkai’s Lab on a Chip papers below:

• • • A high-throughput, open-space and reusable microfluidic chip for combinational drug screening on tumor spheroids
    • Cell pairing and polyethylene glycol (PEG)-mediated cell fusion using two-step centrifugation-assisted single-cell trapping (CAScT)
    • Point-of-care testing: applications of 3D printing

Please join us in welcoming our new Associate Editors. We look forward to continuing to work with them on Lab on a Chip, and they are looking forward to handling your papers!

Submit your paper today!

The founding Editor of Lab on a Chip and pioneer of the µTAS field, Professor Andreas Manz, has announced his retirement. In celebration of all his works and achievements, we have collated a video from his friends and colleagues across the lab on a chip community. 

Watch the video ⬇️

We have created a retrospective collection across the past 2 decades since Lab on a Chip’s inception, of his work published in the journal, which can be found here:

Andreas Manz Special Collection

In addition, we will be honouring Andreas with a special Lab on a Chip collection with invited papers from his networks throughout his career, for publication next year. Keep an eye on our Twitter for more details

Please join us in congratulating Andreas on his retirement, and we thank him for all his vital contributions to the journal, the field and the community!

We are delighted to welcome Professor Jean-Christophe Baret as an Associate Editor for Lab on a Chip!

Jean-Christophe Baret

University of Bordeaux , France

JC Baret is Professor at the University of Bordeaux and member of the Institut Universitaire de France. He obtained his PhD from the University of Twente (NL) in 2005 and joined the Institut de Science et d’Ingénierie Supramoléculaires (Univ Strasbourg) as a post-doc and then the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization in Goettingen as a Max Planck Group Leader.

His laboratory is now located at the CNRS Centre de Recherche Paul Pascal where he develops research activities centered on microfluidics for applications in biochemistry, high-throughput screening and more recently for the bottom-up assembly of artificial cells. He is founder and scientific advisor of Emulseo developing industrial formulations for microfluidics.

Find out more on the his group website and follow @BaretJc on Twitter

Submit your work to Jean-Christophe today!

Transform microfluidics industry with your research

Dolomite Microfluidic Competition 2022 is a competition for all researchers, students who are working or studying on microfluidics projects across the globe. We know scientists around the world may have many great ideas, but don’t have enough resources for their projects. Therefore, Dolomite Microfluidics would like to organize this competition to bring your ideas to the world and make them come true. – 

Prize

• 1^st Prize:  A virtual voucher to purchase Dolomite Microfluidics products up to a maximum value of USD 6000 (including shipping fee)
• 2^nd Prize:  A virtual voucher to purchase Dolomite Microfluidics products up to a maximum value of USD 2500 (including shipping fee)

The Dolomite Applications team will suggest of the most suitable products for the winner to benefit from in their project based only on the products produced and available on Dolomite Microfluidic Webshop.

Entry period

00:01 am GMT +7 on September 12, 2022 and ends at 11:59 pm GMT +7 on October 31, 2022

How to submit?

Visit the Dolomite Scientific Competition to learn more about the competition, how to submit, and FAQS

Dolomite Scientific Competition 2022_Terms Conditions