A lab-on-a-chip (LOC) is a device that integrates one or several laboratory functions on a single integrated circuit of only millimeters to a few square centimeters to achieve automation and high-throughput screening. LOCs can handle extremely small fluid volumes down to less than pico-liters. Lab-on-a-chip devices are a subset of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) devices and sometimes called "micro total analysis systems" (μTAS). LOCs may use microfluidics, the physics, manipulation and study of minute amounts of fluids. However, strictly regarded "lab-on-a-chip" indicates generally the scaling of single or multiple lab processes down to chip-format, whereas "μTAS" is dedicated to the integration of the total sequence of lab processes to perform chemical analysis.
Leland C. Clark Jr. was an American biochemist born in Rochester, New York. He is most well known as the inventor of the Clark electrode, a device used for measuring oxygen in blood, water and other liquids. Clark is considered the "father of biosensors", and the modern-day glucose sensor used daily by millions of diabetics is based on his research. He conducted pioneering research on heart-lung machines in the 1940s and '50s and was holder of more than 25 patents. Although he developed a fluorocarbon-based liquid that could be breathed successfully by mice in place of air, his lifelong goal of developing artificial blood remained unfulfilled at the time of his death. He is the inventor of Oxycyte, a third-generation perfluorocarbon (PFC) therapeutic oxygen carrier designed to enhance oxygen delivery to damaged tissues.
Joseph Wang is an American biomedical engineer and inventor. He is a Distinguished Professor, SAIC Endowed Chair, and former Chair of the Department of Nanoengineering at the University of California, San Diego, who specialized in nanomachines, biosensors, nano-bioelectronics, wearable devices, and electrochemistry. He also serves as the Director of the UCSD Center for Wearable Sensors and as the co-director of the UCSD Center for Mobile Health Systems and Applications (CMSA).
Anthony "Tony" Guiseppi-Elie is a Trinidad-born, American scientist, engineer, entrepreneur, and avid Wikipedia editor. He is the President and Sr. Fellow of the American International Institute of Medical Sciences, Engineering and Innovation and the President and Scientific director of ABTECH Scientific, Inc. He is noted for his research and commercial development of biologically inspired and chemically responsive electroconductive hydrogels. Guiseppi-Elie is the Founding Editor-in-Chief of the transdisciplinary journal Bioengineering.
Michelle Khine is an American bioengineer who is a distinguished scientist and innovator at the University of California, Irvine, co-founder of Fluxion Biosciences Inc., the scientific founder of the Shrink nano-technology platform, as well as the Assistant and Founding Professor of the School of Engineering at UC Merced. Khine, an associate biomedical engineering professor in the Henry Samueli School of Engineering, is responsible for experimenting with childhood toys Shrinky Dinks to build microfluidic channels. Her research has enabled technological advances in industries including biological research and medical diagnostics.
Suman Chakraborty is a professor at the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur and Sir J. C. Bose National Fellow. He has been the first in the history of IIT Kharagpur to be bestowed by the National Award for Teachers in the Higher Education Category by the honourable President of India. He is also Institute Chair Professor Awardee of 2023. He has served as the Dean, Research and Development, Associate Dean and the Head of the School of Medical Science and Technology of the Institute. He has also been National Academy of Engineering Chair Professor. He joined the Institute in 2002 as Assistant Professor and has been a Full Professor since 2008.
Nancy Allbritton is a Professor of Bioengineering and the Frank & Julie Jungers Dean of the College of Engineering at the University of Washington. She was previously a Kenan Professor and Chair in the Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University.
Eva Yocheved Andrei is an American condensed matter physicist, a Distinguished Professor, and a Board of Governors Professor at Rutgers University. Her research focuses on emergent properties of matter arising from the collective behavior of many particles, especially low-dimensional phenomena under low temperatures and high magnetic fields.
Paper-based microfluidics are microfluidic devices that consist of a series of hydrophilic cellulose or nitrocellulose fibers that transport fluid from an inlet through the porous medium to a desired outlet or region of the device, by means of capillary action. This technology builds on the conventional lateral flow test which is capable of detecting many infectious agents and chemical contaminants. The main advantage of this is that it is largely a passively controlled device unlike more complex microfluidic devices. Development of paper-based microfluidic devices began in the early 21st century to meet a need for inexpensive and portable medical diagnostic systems.
Deji Akinwande is a Nigerian-American professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering with courtesy affiliation with Materials Science, and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. He was awarded the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers in 2016 from Barack Obama. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, the African Academy of Sciences, the Materials Research Society (MRS), and the IEEE.
Lydia Lee Sohn is a professor of mechanical engineering and bio-engineering at the University of California, Berkeley and the co-founder of Nodexus. In 2002, Sohn and Paul McEuen uncovered figure duplication and fraud in scientific papers on semiconductors written by Jan Hendrik Schön, leading to multiple retractions and concerns over peer-review, which is referred to as the Schön scandal.
Deblina Sarkar is an Indian electrical engineer, and inventor, born in Kolkata,West Bengal. She is an assistant professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the AT&T Career Development Chair Professor of the MIT Media Lab. Sarkar has been internationally recognized for her invention of an ultra thin quantum mechanical transistor that can be scaled to nano-sizes and used in nanoelectronic biosensors. As the principal investigator of the Nano Cybernetic Biotrek Lab at MIT, Sarkar leads a multidisciplinary team of researchers towards bridging the gap between nanotechnology and synthetic biology to build new nano-devices and life-machine interfacing technologies with which to probe and enhance biological function.
Francesca Iacopi is an Australian engineer, researcher and an academic. She specializes in materials and nanoelectronics engineering and is a professor at the University of Technology Sydney. She is a chief investigator of the ARC Centre of Excellence in Transformative Meta-Optical Systems, a Fellow of the Institution of Engineers Australia, and a senior member of Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.
CRISPR Therapeutics AG is a Swiss–American biotechnology company headquartered in Zug, Switzerland. It was one of the first companies formed to utilize the CRISPR gene editing platform to develop medicines for the treatment of various rare and common diseases. The company has approximately 500 employees and has offices in Zug, Switzerland, Boston, Massachusetts, San Francisco, California and London, United Kingdom. Its manufacturing facility in Framingham, Massachusetts won the Facilities of the Year Award (FOYA) award in 2022. The company’s lead program, exagamglogene autotemcel, or exa-cel, was granted regulatory approval by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in December 2023.
Nicole Nastaran Hashemi is an American engineer. As an associate professor at Iowa State University, Hashemi was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and American Society of Mechanical Engineers.
Bianxiao Cui is the current Job and Gertrud Tamaki Professor of Chemistry and a fellow of the Stanford Neuroscience Institute at Stanford University.
Cho Yoon-Kyoung is an interdisciplinary researcher involved in basic science to translational research in microfluidics and nanomedicine. She is a group leader in the Center for Soft and Living Matter at the Institute for Basic Science (IBS) and a full professor in Biomedical Engineering at the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), Ulsan, Korea. Cho is a member of the National Academy of Engineering of Korea and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry.
Chenzhong Li is a Chinese-born Canadian & American biomedical engineer, chemist, inventor, professor, and journal editor. Li is the co-Editor-in-Chief of the journal Biosensors and Bioelectronics (Elsevier) and the associate editors of journals RESEARCH (AAAS) and Biosensors (MDPI).
Sahika Inal is a Turkish scientist who is an associate professor and Chair of the Organic Bioelectronics Laboratory at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology. She is interested in the use of organic electronic materials for monitoring health, and the design of biocompatible devices that can interface with the human body. In 2021, she was shortlisted for the Nature Portfolio Scientific Achievement award.
Catherine M. Klapperich is an American biomedical engineer noted for her research on diagnostics and precision medicine. She is currently a professor of biomedical engineering at Boston University, with additional appointments in materials science & engineering and mechanical engineering. Klapperich serves as the director of research for the DAMP Laboratory at BU. Klapperich was previously the director of the NIH NIBIB Center for Future Technologies in Cancer Care as part of the Point-of Care-Research Technologies Network.
