The past quarter-century of biomedical research has seen the emergence of powerful and transformational methods such as quantitative polymerase chain reaction, next generation sequencing, and 3D cell culture. Though impressive in their capabilities and tantalizing in their potential, these highly sophisticated technologies are still hampered by the same persisting problem---sample preparation. Procedures such as nucleic acid purification remain manual, laborious and susceptible to human error, while newer technologies like 3D tissue self-assembly do not yet even have solutions for microtissue handling other than manual pipetting for sub-millimeter spheroids. Microfluidics, or automated liquid handling at the very small scale, represents a promising approach for developing new fluidic platforms that can handle the demands of sample preparation: high yield, purity, and robustness. This thesis aims to explore robust micro- and mesofluidic technologies with two main focuses: studying and automating the transport of microtissues and microparticles, and improving upon conventional biomolecular purification procedures. Particle suspensions within pressure-driven flows are investigated to measure their shear-induced evolution and axial dispersion. Novel fluidic platforms are also designed, implemented and analyzed, including the hydrodynamic characterization of a `Bio-Gripper' for automated microtissue translocation, the application of oil-water interfaces for extracting influenza RNA from clinical samples, and the magneto-electrophoretic transport and purification of DNA for next generation sequencing library preparation. These technologies may serve to streamline sample preparation, reduce procedural time and human error, and thus bring about a more rapid ``sample in, result out" paradigm in the biomedical space.
Cui, Francis,
"Micro- and Meso-fluidics for Automated Biomedical Sample Preparation"
(2019).
Engineering Theses and Dissertations.
Brown Digital Repository. Brown University Library.
https://doi.org/10.26300/5kj1-qx47
