Passive Valving

The analogy of electrons traveling through circuits being similar to a fluid flowing through a pipe has long been useful in explaining basic electronics to the uninitiated.  In recent years, this analogy between microelectronics and the much newer field of microfluidics has expanded rapidly.  Work in the Landers lab has focused on leveraging the knowledge base from microelectronics into a new paradigm for passively controlling fluid flow in microfluidics.  Passive fluid controls in microfluidics, similar to passive components in electronics, do not require an external energy source, greatly increasing the simplicity and portability of microdevices.  Using microfluidic components analogous to fundamental electric circuit components (resistors, capacitors, rectifiers), we are modeling and characterizing microfluidic circuits (filters, timers, etc…) created when the components are combined.  

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Active Valving

Coming soon...

Elastomer-based Chemo-mechanical Sensor

This is a collaborative project with Dr. Matt Begley's lab (http://people.virginia.edu/~mrb3h/) in the Civil Engineering Dept. of UVa. Elastomer-based freestanding structure was theoretically demonstrated to be highly sensitive compared to conventional Si-based freestanding structures. The main idea is to develop chemically-selective surfaces on ultra-compliant polymeric microstructures: selective adsorption of molecules leads to mechanical deformation or ¡°buckling¡± that can be used to indicate the presence of pollutants, pathogens, cancer markers, etc.

We have microfabricated freestanding cantilevers, and membranes, and macro scaled elastomer strips to prove the concept of the elastomer-based chemo-mechanical sensing. Protein-substrate interaction (e.g. Avidin-Biotin), DNA-salt interaction have been applied on the freestanding structures. The biological and physical effects of protein and DNA behaviors on surface as well as the surface mechanics can be elucidated besides the sensing application. Various surface functionalization techniques are being explored.

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