Combining nanosurface chemistry and microfluidics for molecular analysis and cell biology

Development of new tools catalyzes progress in biochemical sciences [G.M. Whitesides, E. Ostuni, S. Takayama, X.Y. Jiang, D.E. Ingber, Annual Review of Biomedical Engineering 3 (2001) 335]. Recent advances in micro-/nano-technology have resulted in an explosion of the number of new tools available for biochemical sciences. We have used surface chemistry, nano-structures and microfluidics to create a set of tools applicable for problems ranging from molecular to cellular analysis. These tools will promote the understanding of fundamental problems in cell biology, development and neurobiology, and become useful for real-world applications such as molecular diagnostics, food analysis and environmental monitoring.