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Applying the Latest Advances in Nanotechnology
to Life Science Product Development and Molecular Medicine |
InterAction Meeting Session, held in Basel, Switzerland, 10 November 2005
Biosensors & Nanofluidics
chaired by Nick Quirke (Imperial College London)
| Presenters & Discussion Leaders:
Simulating Nanoflows, Nick Quirke (Imperial College London)
Computational Modelling for Biosensor Devices, Richard Gilbert (E2v Technologies)
Microfluidic Systems for Controlled Production of Small Molecules & Nanoparticles, Andrew deMello (Imperial College London)
Thermophoresis Between Solids: A Molecular Dynamics Study of Gold Nanoparticles Confined and Thermally Driven Through Carbon Nanotubes, Jens Walther (ETH-Zurich)
Continuous-Flow Electrophoresis – IEF and ITP on a Chip, Joachim Franzke (Institute for Analytical Sciences Dortmund and Berlin)
Advances in molecular biology, human genetics and functional genomics continue to produce increasing numbers of molecular targets available for therapeutic intervention. This, coupled with major increases in compound collections produced by combinatorial technologies, is driving innovation in high throughput screening (HTS).
For HTS a fast developing area is ‘lab on a chip’ technology and microfluidics with sub-microliter volumes. These systems have unique properties, as illustrated by the development of rapid separation-based assays in microfluidics systems. Microfluidic devices present unique advantages for sample handling, reagent mixing, separation, and detection. This technology is ideal for handling costly and difficult-to-obtain samples and reagents. Typical microfluidic structures require between 10 nl and 10 ml of sample and reagents. Flow in microfluidic channels tends to be laminar, allowing the parallel flow of several layers of fluid. This enables the design of separation and detection devices based on laminar fluid flow. At these dimensions, diffusion becomes a viable method to move particles, mix fluids, and control reaction rates. The use of new materials has recently enabled the construction of devices containing monolithic pumps and valves. In addition active particle transportation and separation methods, such as capillary electrophoresis, show enhanced separation performance
In this program session we discuss current frontiers in microfluidics and explore the potential for advances in miniaturisation from micro to nanofluidic systems, using both molecular simulation and experiment.
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