Headlines

UCI Graduate Division Announcement: Shia-Yen Teh has been named a fellow in the 2009 President’s Dissertation Year Fellowship Program, June 08, 2009

RSC Publishing Chemical Technology Interview: Seeking the killer application, April 8, 2009

RSC Publishing Announcement: Professor Abraham Lee named a new member of the Lab on a Chip Editorial Board, Jan 9, 2009

UC Irvine Press Release: California funds UCI stem cell sorting, tracking research, Dec 11, 2008

Archived Laboratory News

Thank you for visiting the Biomolecular Microsystems and Nanotransducers (BioMiNT) in the Biomedical Engineering Department, University of California at Irvine. Our focus is in developing the microscale and nanoscale platform technologies for the interrogation and manipulation of biological and physiological activities. We strongly believe the future of biotechnology and biomedicine to be driven by instruments and devices that can function at the scale of the critical biological elements.

By building on the broad technological base of microsystems technologies (MEMS, microfluidics, micro-optics, biosensors, microelectronics), integration of multifunctional components and interface to the operator is established. The microscale allows devices that are either implantable or can serve as interventional tools to access essentially any part of the human anatomy minimally invasively. The development of microfluidic processors for the integration of sample collection, sample transport, sample preparation, and sample detection requires novel platforms for the sensing and actuation of a wide range of biological species. It is ultimately critical to develop on these microsystems nanoscale interfaces to biological molecules, including nucleic acids, proteins, lipids, and various small molecules.

We are focusing our efforts on two main microsystem platform technologies, controlled micro/nano droplet generation and micro electrofluidic (e.g. MHD, DEP) systems. The applications of our research include the directed synthesis of drug release micro/nano particles, digital bioassays in droplets for point-of-care diagnostics, artificial cells for protein synthesis and biomolecular power harvesting, directed differentiation of neural stem cells, high throughput combinatory screening in droplets, and most recently the development of microtools for interventional neuroradiology.

Regardless of whether it is the microscale or the nanoscale that we exploit, it is ultimately the meter scale (human body) that counts!! It is our sincerest hope that the technology we develop will fundamentally change the way healthcare is practiced today in terms of lower cost, greater accessibility, more individual control, broader distribution, and increased options for every walk of life.

Please direct any academic inquiries to Dr. Abraham P. Lee.