Advanced Micro/Nano-technology Techniques 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 asadvancement made in micro/nano-technology and rapid prototyping, microfluidics is increasingly being explored and even validated for use in the detection, diagnosis andtreatment of cancer. In this seminar, I will describe our recent efforts in development of novel microfluidic tools for enrichment of cancer cells from blood. I will discuss howsimple micro-engineered tools (i.e., fabricated using 3D printing and MEMS techniques) can be combined with fluid mechanics concepts in order to develop functional devices for both basic and applied research in cancer. I will also give details of our recent works for study of cancer heterogeneity at the single-cell level using advanced microfluidic systems