Advanced Microfluidic Systems For Cancer Research

Cancer has emerged as one of the most severe non-communicable diseases in the past decades.More recently, with improved understanding in cancer biology as well as advancement made inmicrotechnology and rapid prototyping, microfluidics is increasingly being explored and evenvalidated for use in the detection, diagnosis and treatment of cancer. With inherent advantagessuch as small sample volume, high sensitivity and fast processing time, microfluidics is wellpositionedto serve as a promising platform for applications in oncology. In this seminar, I willdescribe our recent efforts in development of novel microfluidic tools for enrichment of cancer cellsfrom blood. I will discuss how simple micro-engineered tools (i.e., fabricated using conventionalmicromilling, 3D printing and MEMS techniques) can be combined with fluid mechanics concepts inorder to develop functional devices for both basic and applied research in cancer. I will also givedetails of our recent works for study of cancer heterogeneity at single-cell level using advancedmicrofluidic systems.