Pouya Rezai
York University, Canada
Title: Integrated hybrid biosensors for automated manipulation and drug screening of whole biological organisms of human diseases
Biography
Biography: Pouya Rezai
Abstract
Small vertebrate and invertebrate organisms such as Danio rerio, C. elegans and D. melanogaster are widely used as model organisms to answer fundamental biological questions about human diseases and to screen chemicals against them for finding new therapeutic drugs. Many biological assays and investigations on these organisms are still conducted manually by laboratory personnel who must possess high levels of expertise in particular unit operations and have access to highly specialized equipment to conduct the assays. Therefore, controllable and sensitive biological studies cannot be performed at the point-of-care or the point-of-need, resulting in significant negative impacts on the outcomes of these researches. In my talk, I will introduce you to bio-microfluidics, a domain of bioengineering research that aims at developing miniaturized and automated devices for efficient biological studies in a cost-effective and sensitive manner. The focus of my talk will be placed on microfluidic chips for studying neurological and behavioral responses of whole-organisms to external cues. Examples include microchips for cardiac and central nervous system studies on Drosophila melanogaster larvae, correlating neuro-behavioral responses of C. elegans to electrical signals, and adult Drosophila egg-laying assays on chemically- and physically-controllable substrates. Since development of these microchips is highly dependent on materials with sensing and actuation functionalities and their transformation into microstructures in the devices, I will also introduce our recent activities in developing conductive polymeric microstructures in microchannels for sensing and detection applications.