CAREER: Developing Asymmetric-Polarization AC Electroosmosis for Lab-on-a-chip

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The research objective is to develop and validate an electrokinetic lab-on-chip forrobust and rapid detection of low concentration bioparticle (eg. virus, bacteria, cells) inwater, food and clinical samples. The research tackles the long-standing bottleneckissues of sensitivity and selectivity for such detection. The approach is: 1) to differentiatebioparticles by their response to electrokinetic transport based on various charge/massratio, 2) to rapidly enrich local particle concentration by expediting bioparticles' diffusionto sensors with convection, and 3) to quantify particle concentration by impedimetricmeasurement while incorporating electrokinetic signal amplification. The abovefunctions are to be realized by asymmetric-polarization AC electro-osmosis, which isnewly discovered and at the forefront of electrokinetic microfluidic research. Such lab-on-a-chip operates at small voltage with low power consumption, and its all electricalprocesses facilitate portability, parallelism and automation for on-site bioparticledetection.Bioparticle detection is of great significance because bioparticles often serve ascarrier/indicator of pathogens and/or toxins. As the world becomes increasinglyconcerned with toxin/pathogenic contamination in food, water and environment frominfectious diseases and bioterrorism, and because the threat of pathogen/toxins tosocieties could be substantially mitigated with early detection, the demand for rapidbioparticle detection is expanding for both civilian and military applications. The PIproposes a novel electrokinetic lab-on-a-chip to detect bioparticles at low concentrations.The research will not only lead to a practical detection chip but also afford students aunique opportunity to explore the state-of-art of interdisciplinary research inmicrosystem, bio/chemi/electronics and microfluidics.