CAREER: Optofluidic Lasers at the Liquid-Liquid Interface: A Versatile Biosensing Platform

University Of Texas At Arlington, Arlington TX

Investigators

Abstract

Proposal Title CAREER: Optofluidic Lasers at the Liquid-Liquid Interface: A Versatile Biosensing Platform Project Goals This CAREER project investigates bio compatible and bio configurable optofluidic lasers that are self assembled at the liquid-liquid interface and explores their transformative applications in bioscience. Nontechnical Abstract This CAREER project integrates research, educational, and outreach components to lead the innovations in both optofluidic lasers and biosensing technologies in healthcare. The novel approach is enabled by multidisciplinary integration of photonics, microfluidics, MEMS, and bionanotechnologies that creates a new modality of all liquid laser array that can be controlled and configured by bio/chemical molecules and fluids. The project includes prominent interdisciplinary education and training components for undergraduate and graduate students. Plans are also in place to promote involvement of underrepresented students, which leverages the UTA's status as one of the Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Minority Serving Institutions. Special attention is paid to recruit and retain female students in engineering. Finally, the proposed project has extensive outreach programs to train high school students and engineering teachers and to disseminate knowledge and research discoveries to the general public. Technical Abstract The objective of this CAREER project is to develop an array of bio compatible and bio configurable optofluidic lasers that are self assembled at the liquid liquid interface and study this novel optofluidic laser enabled versatile biosensing technology platform to achieve exceptional detection sensitivity, selectivity, and throughput in various biological and biomedical sensing applications. The proposed optofluidic laser features a monolayer laser gain material (i.e., only a few nanometers thick) confined at the liquid liquid interface, which allows biological and biochemical molecules to access and directly modulate the laser gain material, and thus forms the basis of enhanced detection sensitivity and selectivity. The proposed laser sensing platform is studied for rapid and low cost multiplexed cancer biomarker detection towards a final goal of addressing current challenges in the point of care medical diagnostics and health monitoring. The outcomes generated from this research will lead to new development and discoveries in the field of bioinspired optofluidic devices and engineering, as well as fundamental research on extreme sensing and extreme photonics.