Microfluidic tools have made recent biological and biomedical research leaps possible. At the physics, engineering, chemistry, and biology interface, innovation in microfluidic approaches has positively impacted areas as diverse as nucleotide sequencing, functional genomics, single-cell and single-molecule studies, and biomedical diagnostics. Many of these applications—including next-generation sequencing devices—have been revolutionized by miniaturization, paving the way for global gene analysis and hece transforming biology. Working on the pico- to nanoliter scale not only allows a high degree of parallelization, but importantly offers superb spatiotemporal control. Small objects such as cells, or even discrete parts thereof, can be exposed to unique conditions, facilitating entirely novel approaches to inquiry in modern biology and chemistry.

The event brings together top researchers and emerging research leaders to spark scientific exchange and create community. Topics spanning from fundamental physics & chemistry to device design and nascent biological applications will be presented, which should be of interest to everyone from experts in microfluidic design to users of the next-generation of microfluidic tools, and from academic scholars and trainees to industry colleagues.

Topics

• Probing biology
• Next-generation device design and emerging applications
• Disease diagnostics, analytical chemistry and chemical synthesis
• Single-cell and single-molecule analyses

Selected Speakers

• Charles Baroud, Institut Pasteur, France
• Anindita Basu, University of Chicago, USA
• Yoon-Kyoung Cho, IBS/UNIST, Korea
• Bart Deplancke, EPFL, Switzerland
• Elena Ferapontova, Aarhus University, Denmark
• Andreas Hierlemann, ETH Zurich, Switzerland
• Megan Yi-Ping Ho, Chinese University of Hong Kong
• Jina Ko, University of Pennsylvania, USA
• Christopher Merten, EPFL, Switzerland
• Sumita Pennathur, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA
• Steve Shih, Concordia University, Canada
• Lydia Sohn, University of California, Berkeley, USA
• Aaron Streets, University of California, Berkeley, USA
• Winnie Edith Svendsen, Technical University of Denmark, Denmark
• Yi-Chin Toh, Queensland University of Technology, Australia
• Angela Wu, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong