Lab on a Chip Blog

Dr. Jessie S. Jeon received her SB, SM, and PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2008, 2010, 2014), and worked as a research fellow at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, (2014-2015). She has joined the KAIST faculty in the fall of 2015 as an assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. Her research focuses on the development of microfluidic platform with applications in investigating biological systems. She plans to further develop the microfluidic system with the emphasis in fluidic aspects and also to extend its applications in mimicking various organ disease systems as well as other biological microenvironments. By doing so, she hopes to bridge the needs of biomedical research with the knowledge of mechanical engineering principles.

Read Jessie S. Jeon’s Emerging Investigator article “On-chip phenotypic investigation of combinatory antibiotic effects by generating orthogonal concentration gradients“ and find out more about her in the interview below: 

Your recent Emerging Investigator Series paper focuses on on-chip phenotypic investigation of combinatory antibiotic effects. How has your research evolved from your first article to this most recent article?

My group first worked on microfluidic-based single antibiotic testing platform where we could reduce the time it takes for antibiotic susceptibility testing (AST). As we learn more about AST, we realized that recently most studies on antibiotics focus on investigation of combinatory antibiotic effects. Since microfluidic platform enables combination of multiple channels, it was quite natural to try a combination of antibiotics in one chip.

What aspect of your work are you most excited about at the moment?

Broadly speaking, I am excited that we could potentially utilize our platform to screen for personalized medicine. That is to screen for patient specific therapy using microfluidic platform. The thought that our technology would contribute to enhance our lives definitely motivates me working on this topic.

In your opinion, what is the future of chip-based screening for clinical therapies?

I believe that with the development of lab-on-chips, we would be able to screen for the most optimal therapeutic strategy using a patient’s own cells, and this technology would bring the biggest impact to the society. This includes selection of strategy in terms of therapeutic methods as well as possibility in combinatory therapy either for antibiotics or anti-cancer drugs. That is also in line with my answer for the question above that I am very excited for the opportunities in personalized medicine with lab-on-a-chip technology.

What do you find most challenging about your research?

As a researcher in an interdisciplinary field, it is always challenging for me to identify meaningful biological and biomedical questions that I can address with my expertise. I realize that it is very important to keep keen relationships with clinicians and biologists.

In which upcoming conferences or events may our readers meet you?

I plan to attend the 2019 Annual Meeting of the Biomedical Engineering Society in coming October.

How do you spend your spare time?

I enjoy playing a variety of sports, mostly tennis these days, and I also try to spend more time with family on short trips whenever possible.

Which profession would you choose if you were not a scientist?

Perhaps I would be serving in military as I briefly took a part in the ROTC program when I was in college.

Can you share one piece of career-related advice or wisdom with other early career scientists?

While I’m still in a position needing much advice from others, I would like to share my thought that if you don’t give up, there will be opportunities to come.

Jérôme Charmet received the Diplôme d’Ingénieur in Microtechnology Engineering from HES-SO Arc in Switzerland in 1998, the M.Sc. degree in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Bern, Switzerland, in 2010, and the PhD degree from the University of Cambridge in 2015. Overall, he worked for more than 10 years in both industrial and academic positions, including Intel Corporation, the National Centre for Sensor Research of Dublin City University in Ireland, the Microtechnology Institute of HES-SO Arc in Switzerland and the Centre for Misfolding Diseases of the University of Cambridge, UK. He joined the University of Warwick as an Assistant Professor in 2016 where he is developing integrated microfluidic platforms to study complex fluids and biological environments with applications in diagnosis, monitoring and drug screening/discovery. Read more about his group research here.

Read his Emerging Investigator article “Resolving protein mixtures using microfluidic diffusional sizing combined with synchrotron radiation circular dichroism” and read about him in the interview below:

Your recent Emerging Investigator Series paper focuses on protein mixtures using microfluidic diffusional sizing combined with synchrotron radiation circular dichroism. How has your research evolved from your first article to this most recent article?

It has evolved quite a lot, in fact it was not even directly related to microfluidics!

What aspect of your work are you most excited about at the moment?

I have started to explore organs-on-a-chip platforms with some colleagues biologists and I find it quite fascinating. But to be honest, every aspects of my work is exciting. I have a great team and collaborators I really enjoy to work with on a daily basis!

In your opinion, what applications can your current approach be used for?

In the manuscript we have used diffusional sizing to resolve the secondary structure of a complex mixture of proteins using synchrotron radiation circular dichroism, but the approach can be applied to other biomolecules with other bulk measurement techniques. We are taking advantage of laminar flow to separate the mixture into “controllable” fractions. By measuring the mixture and the different fractions, we can retrieve information about each component in the mixture.

What do you find most challenging about your research?

It’s multidisciplinary nature.. but it is also one of the most rewarding (when it works).

In which upcoming conferences or events may our readers meet you?

I’m just back from MicroTAS 2018 in Kaohsiung (Taiwan). Next, I will be attending the 8th Annual UK and Ireland Early Career Blood Brain Barrier Symposium 2018 in Oxford.

How do you spend your spare time?

Hiking, running … and these days spending as much time as possible with my 1 year old son.

Which profession would you choose if you were not a scientist?

I got to work with art conservator-restorers (…for some reason) and it is something I would definitely enjoy.

Can you share one piece of career-related advice or wisdom with other early career scientists?

It will sound a bit cheesy, but I will say “believe in your own ideas and importantly, find the right environment to develop them”.

Dr. Weian Zhao is an Associate Professor at the Sue and Bill Gross Stem Cell Research Center, Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, Department of Biomedical Engineering, and Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences at University of California, Irvine. Dr. Zhao is also the co-founder of Velox Biosystems Inc, Baylx Inc, and Amberstone Biosciences LLC, start-up companies that aim to develop technologies for rapid diagnosis, stem cell therapy, and drug discovery, respectively. Dr. Zhao’s research aims to 1) elucidate and eventually control the fate of transplanted stem cells and immune cells to treat cancer and autoimmune diseases, and 2) develop novel miniaturized devices for early diagnosis and monitoring for conditions including sepsis, antibiotic resistance and cancer. Dr. Zhao has received several awards including the MIT’s Technology Review TR35 Award: the world’s top 35 innovators under the age of 35 and NIH Director’s New Innovator Award. Dr. Zhao completed his BSc and MSc degrees in Chemistry at Shandong University and then obtained his PhD in Chemistry at McMaster University in 2008. During 2008-2011, Dr. Zhao was a Human Frontier Science Program (HFSP) Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard Medical School, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and MIT.

Read Dr Zhao’s Emerging Investigator article “Functional TCR T cell screening using single-cell droplet microfluidics” and read more about him in the interview below:

Your recent Emerging Investigator Series paper focuses on functional TCR T cell screening using single-cell droplet microfluidics. How has your research evolved from your first article to this most recent article?

I was trained as a colloidal and surface chemist. My first paper back when I was a PhD student was about building nanostructures using DNA as a template. Over the years, my research has evolved towards addressing immediate, major unmet need in biology and medicine; this is achieved by developing new tools and technologies, often using an interdisciplinary and collaborative approach, as exemplified by this new paper.

What aspect of your work are you most excited about at the moment?

It is the perspective that what we do in research can potentially solve real-world problems and help the patients in a short term. Like this new paper illustrated, our single-cell system holds great potential to accelerate development of cancer immunotherapeutics. There is a great and urgent demand in the clinic for many more of this type of promising drugs that can benefit patients who do not have lots of time to wait.

In your opinion, how can droplet microfluidic technologies contribute to immune-screening and immuno-therapy and personalised medicine in general?

Droplet microfluidic technologies and other exciting single-cell systems being developed in our field can contribute to immune-screening, immuno-therapy and personalised medicine by significantly reducing the time needed for the discovery phase. For example, conventional screening platforms for immunologic agents such as antibodies or T cells, usually take months to years to obtain a therapeutic candidate whereas the new single-cell platforms can potentially do this in the matter of days to weeks. In this new paper, this ability is enabled by directly interrogating the “functions” of individual cell clones in greater depth by using single-cell analysis. As biological samples are heterogeneous, this key information is often lost in conventional, population based studies.

What do you find most challenging about your research?

It is always the people. I take time to identify and build the right team that, once in place, can almost conquer any challenges in research itself. I also wish I could spend more time to do research rather than writing grants.

In which upcoming conferences or events may our readers meet you?

IEEE EMBS Micro & Nanotechnology in Medicine 2018, Physical Science of Cancer (GRS) 2019, and PEGS 2019

How do you spend your spare time?

Mostly with the family, and watching Manchester United games.

Which profession would you choose if you were not a scientist?

Probably try to become a football manager in the English Premier League. There is a lot of similarity in running a research laboratory and running a football club, isn’t there?

Can you share one piece of career-related advice or wisdom with other early career scientists?

Ask for help and mentorship from people who have succeeded in what you are trying to do. Try to accelerate your progress through collaboration and partnership.