Bio-MicroElectroMechanical Systems (BioMEMS) Resource Center

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Microfabrication techniques or microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) that have revolutionized the electronics industry are now poised to revolutionize the pharmaceutical & biotechnology industries, & basic biomedical sciences. The two leading applications of microfabrication in biology include "genes-on-a-chip" to monitor the expression level of potentially all genes in humans & organisms simultaneously, & "lab-on-a-chip" type devices to perform high-throughput biochemistry in very small volumes. Equally exciting is recent advances in the understanding of cellular behavior in microenvironments have started to pave the way towards living micro-devices. The emerging integration of living systems & MEMS are expected to become key technologies in the 21st century of medicine with a broad range of applications varying from diagnostic, therapeutics, cell-based high-throughput drug screening tools, & basic & applied cell biology tools. The mission for the proposed NIH BioMEMS Resource Center is to bridge the gap between MEMS engineering & biomedical community to provide new technologies at the interface of MEMS & living biological systems to biomedical investigators & clinicians. In order to make the tools of BioMEMS available to the biomedical community, we focused our efforts on 2 core technological research & development projects. In Core Project 1, we will use inertial microfluidic technology for high-throughput & precise microscale control of cell & particle motion for sorting & analysis of disease specific "rare" cells in blood. In Core Project 2, we will develop broad utility "living cell array" platforms to study the dynamics of cellular & tissue response to a multitude of stimuli. Also, there are 23 collaborative projects that both utilize & help advance the core technologies. The BMRC also provides services to NIH investigators to use the tools of microsystems technology in biology & medicine. The Core, Collaborative, & Service activities are complemented with a rich portfolio of training & dissemination activities. Our collaborators & service users are extremely well-funded NIH investigators. The training activities include ad-hoc training, laboratory courses, & workshops. The dissemination activities are very broad encompassing publications, presentations, web presence, symposia & meetings, visiting faculty program, & technology transfer. We have also been very successful in disseminating our technologies through licensing & spin-off commercialization and the use of MEMS foundries for manufacturing of microchips. BMRC has been very successful in developing cutting-edge, enabling technologies at the Interface of MEMS & biology, & disseminating these technologies to the biomedical community via collaborations, service activities, & organized training & dissemination programs.