Microwave Sensing for Microfluidic Platforms towards Environmental, Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Applications
Abstract
Microfluidics presents tremendous potential to integrate multiple chemical or biological assays that are usually performed using different facilities at traditional laboratories, into one single platform by leveraging the continuous flow nature. Sensing is one of the key components required in typical microfluidic systems. Although optical sensing provides direct visualization of the fluids, electrical sensing offers unique advantages as an excellent alternative. Major advantages include fast response, possibility to sense a larger area than a typical field of view of microscopic imaging and suitability for point-of-care applications. Among the commonly used electrical sensing methods, microwave sensing is unique in the sense that it can also simultaneously heat the material. In this talk, I will introduce our work in microwave sensing towards water and wastewater quality control, drug compound screening and disease diagnosis.
Brief Biography
Dr. Ren received her PhD in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Toronto. She is currently a professor of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering at the University of Waterloo (UW) and is directing Waterloo Microfluidics Laboratory focusing on advancing fundamental knowledge of microfluidics and developing Lab-on-a-Chip technologies which have significant impact on a wide range of applications such as material synthesis, protein separation, and water quality sensing. Dr. Ren has received several awards from the engineering and research community, including: the prestigious Canada Research Chair in Droplet Microfluidics and Lab-on-a-Chip Technology from 2009 – 2019 election as a Member of the College of New Scholars, Scientists and Artists of Royal Society of Canada in 2018, being recognized as one of 20 leading female innovators in Women of Innovation (Dr. Ren is a co-founder of four start-up companies) in 2017, appointment as Fellow of the Canadian Society of Mechanical Engineering in 2014.
