Overview

Much of my personal motivation for working in biomedical engineering derives from my interest in dreaming up new technologies or devices to directly impact health and our understanding of the underlying cellular and molecular phenomena. My laboratory has made contributions in many diverse areas from fluid mechanics of high frequency ventilation used with premature infants to optically activated gene expression for delivering targeted genetic therapies. Many of our current lab projects involve the application of unusual physical properties at the micro and nanoscale to develop novel diagnostic tools. I am particularly excited our recent progress in developing simple diagnostic tools based on the science underlying phenomena as diverse as the optical properties of quantum dots and the microfluidics of the coffee ring phenomenon. With further development, these technologies offer to deliver new diagnostic tools to a greater fraction of the world’s population.