SENSORS: Portable, Integrated and Highly Sensitive Pathogen Detectors Based on Ferrohydrodynamic Pumping

Yale University, New Haven CT

Investigators

Abstract

Intellectual Merits: This work involves a multi-disciplinary research program to design, model, analyze, build and optimize an integrated, portable pathogen sensor chip that is based on the pumping dynamics of magnetic fluids under traveling wave excitations. The research incorporates colloidal chemistry, magnetism and fluid mechanics, combining fundamental modeling and analysis with a simple and effective testing methodology. The ideas presented are novel and motivated by the new insights gained through the PI's recent theoretical and experimental work on magnetic fluids. The research effort promises to advance the physical understanding of the coupling between magnetic and fluid mechanics domains, especially at the micro and nano-scales. The study will integrate physical, mathematical and numerical modeling with micro-scale sensor fabrication and testing. This approach results in testable theoretical predictions, develops a fundamental understanding of the hydrodynamics of magnetic fluids, and enables the realization of highly effective sensors for a wide variety of chemical and biological pathogens. Broader Impacts: The sensor described here promises to be compact, portable, integrated, cheap, disposable, versatile and highly sensitive, with direct impact potential in the health industry, biomedical research, and homeland security. By providing a fast and reliable detection scheme in a completely portable and practical package, this sensor design is likely to save time, money and lives, both in hospital settings and in the field. The theoretical and experimental insights gained from this sensor work will also advance our understanding of magnetic fluid pumping, and enable better miniaturized pump designs for minimally invasive and implantable drug delivery devices (such as for diabetic patients). Moreover, lab-on-a-chip applications - such as cell sorting and manipulation, as well as DNA and protein separation and identification - will greatly benefit from the experience gained on magnetic fluid pumping at the micro-scale. The results of this study will provide valuable opportunities for the interdisciplinary training of both undergraduate and graduate students, as well as ample prospects for outreach activities in the greater New Haven area around Yale University. The PI is already collaborating with the Connecticut Pre-Engineering Program (CPEP) for his planned outreach activities around the New Haven area, which has a significant population of socially and economically "at-risk" children, as well as a high concentration of traditionally underrepresented minority students.