Microfluidic microbubbles and nanobubbles: experiments and mathematical modeling

我们正在启动多伦多城市大学和牛津大学之间的合作。这种合作将导致一个强大的微流体平台，用于产生“设计”微气泡和纳米气泡。类似的脂质稳定气泡已经在生物医学中被临床认可，作为心脏病和癌症诊断的超声造影剂，并越来越多地作为治疗药物。然而，市售微气泡尺寸分布较大，导致成像和治疗效果不理想，经过多年的发展，尚未有微流体造泡方法被批准用于临床。一个关键的挑战是用传统的微流体制造方法可以实现的特征尺寸。也就是说，它还不可能创造出微流体的特征，使微气泡足够小，可以用于超声波应用。阻碍这一领域发展的另一个问题是对气泡产生后的收缩过程缺乏基本的了解。也就是说，只有少数研究考察了微流体微泡收缩的影响。这项国际合作将结合微流体实验（TMU）和数学建模（牛津），以实现可控的气泡收缩，并解决重要的基础研究问题。这些问题的答案将导致用于生物医学超声应用的“下一代”气泡产生系统，并导致加拿大研究医院采用该技术，改善加拿大人的健康状况并产生经济效益。

We are initiating a collaboration between Toronto Metropolitan University and the University of Oxford. This collaboration will lead to a robust microfluidic platform for generating "designer" microbubbles and nanobubbles. Similar lipid-stabilized bubbles are already clinically approved in biomedicine, as ultrasound contrast agents for the diagnoses of heart disease and cancer, and increasingly as therapeutic agents. However, commercially available microbubbles have large size distributions, which result in sub-optimal imaging and therapeutic effects, and after years of development, no microfluidic bubble-making method has been approved for clinical use.A key challenge is the size of features achievable with conventional microfluidic fabrication methods. Namely, it has not been possible to create microfluidic features that enable robust production of microbubbles small enough for ultrasound applications. Another issue preventing advances in this field is the lack of fundamental understanding of the bubble shrinkage process after bubbles are generated. Namely, only a handful of studies have examined the effect of microfluidic microbubble shrinkage.This international collaboration will combine microfluidic experimentation (TMU) and mathematical modeling (Oxford), to achieve controlled bubble shrinkage, and address important fundamental research questions. The answers to these questions will lead to "next gen" bubble generating systems for biomedical ultrasound applications, and lead to technology adoption by Canadian research hospitals, improving the health of Canadians and generating economic benefits.