Scalable Optoelectronic Lab-on-a-Chip Towards Next-Generation Precision Medicine

Zoom Link: https://umich.zoom.us/j/98549357661?pwd=SlV3TUZuWkM2SFlVcWVMSWd6aHJsUT09

Abstract: Precision medicine is an emerging field that stratifies patient groups based on molecular and cellular levels of data, followed by individualized treatment for better health outcome. One key enabling tool in precision medicine is a biomedical device that can acquire cellular/molecular information specific to targeted patient groups. To achieve this specificity, such devices should ideally be built in a scalable array form, which can scale down its pitch for high resolution cell interfacing or scale up its pixel numbers to collect high-content data. The resulting arrays can be used to probe cellular disease models or trace the dynamics of multiple biomarkers simultaneously. If successful, they can be integrated to pharmaceutical screening and bedside testing systems to advance drug therapies and point-of-care solutions. Motivated by these, our work has been focused on scalable optoelectronic lab-on-a-chips for cell interfacing and biosensing applications that may add to next-generation precision medicine. In this talk, I will introduce our recent efforts on: 1) high-resolution cell interfaces for single-cell optogenetics and on-chip fluorescence imaging; and 2) label-free biochip technologies for applications in DNA detection and cytokine monitoring, as well as how these pilot studies will serve as building blocks in next-generation biomedical systems.

Bio: Dr. Guangyu Xu received his B.S. and M.S. degrees from Tsinghua University. In 2011 he received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from UCLA, where he studied the variability effects in graphene electronics. Afterwards, Dr. Xu received his postdoctoral training at Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and MIT Media Lab, where he developed label-free DNA arrays and neuroimaging assays, respectively. He then joined ECE Department at UMass Amherst in 2016 and is now a Dev and Linda Gupta Endowed Associate Professor. His research interests are in the field of biosensing, neuroengineering, nanobiotechnology, and bioinformatics. His work has been supported by the NSF CAREER Award and the NSF Brain Initiative, with the focus on lab-on-a-chip technologies towards important biomedical applications. He has been serving as a panelist for NSF, NIH, and Samsung Electronics, and a TPC member for IEEE IEDM and IEEE MEMS conferences on Sensors, Bioelectronics, and Bio/Medical MEMS.

If you are interested in participating in a one-on-one virtual meeting with Professor Xu on Thursday, January 27th or Friday, January 28th, please contact Trasa Burkhardt by no later than 4:00 PM, Wednesday, January 26th.