A portable lab-on-a-chip called the Genotyper, developed by a multidisciplinary team here at Michigan, could eventually allow doctors to de-code the genetic makeup of flu viruses in less than two hours. Ultimately, the Genotyper will be fully portable and could even be connected wirelessly, thus able to track the spread of existing or emerging flu strains around the globe, said Ron Larson, chemical engineering professor and part of the team developing the technology. (9/2005)
>>Read more about the Genotyper
Published research findings:
"An integrated microfluidic device for influenza and other genetic analyses", Lab on a Chip, R. Pal, et al., 5(10), 1024 - 1032, 2005.)
“The Development of Microfluidic Devices for Influenza A Detection and Genotyping", M. Yang, et al., Proceedings of the International Conference on Options for the Control of Influenza V, Oct. 7-11, 2003, Okinawa, Japan, International Congress Series 1263, Elsevier, New York, pp. 365-371.
Mike Solomon and his former graduate student, Ali Mohraz, published an article on colloidal rod assembly, which was recently featured on the June 7, 2005 cover of Langmuir (7/2005)
(Direct visualization of Colloidal Rod Assembly by Confocal Microscope, Ali Mohraz and Michael J. Solomon, Langmuir, Volume 21, pp. 5298-5306, July 2005.)
Scott Fogler has won the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) 2005 Award for Lifetime Achievement in Chemical Engineering Pedagogical Scholarship. This award is given for "lifetime achievement, recognizing a sustained career of pedagogical scholarship that not only caused innovative and substantial changes, but also inspired younger educators to new behaviors that benefit students in chemical engineering." (2/2005)
>> Educational materials that Scott has developed that have greatly influenced the teaching of chemical reaction engineering.
The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) has elected Ralph Yang, Dwight F. Benton Professor of Chemical Engineering, to its membership. Yang was elected for developing the theories, methods and materials for the removal of environmentally hazardous compounds from transportation fuels and other difficult separations. Yang has pioneered a class of adsorbents for new applications in separations and purification by pi-complexation. (2/2005)
Joerg Lahann is the co-author of an article on dynamically switchable surfaces, which was recently featured on the March 2005 cover of MRS Bulletin. (Cover shows artistic rendering of multi-electrode array of self-assembled monolayers.) (3/2005)
<(Smart Materials with Dynamically Controllable Surfaces,Joerg Lahann and Robert S. Langer, MRS Bulletin, Volume 30, No. 3, pp. 185-188, March 2005.) Read article (PDF)
>>2003 ChE newsletter article on Lahann
Nick Kotov’s group has developed a nanoscale thermometer that has potential applications in microfluidics, micro-electro-mechanical system and nano-electro-mechanical system technologies as well as in medical and homeland-security applications. The responses aren’t limited to temperature. In terms of applications, this stimulus-response system is actually just the beginning of many other similar structures of sensing devices. A paper on the topic, "Nanoparticle Assemblies with Molecular Springs: A Nanoscale Thermometer," is available online at the Journal Angewandte Chemie International Edition. The paper was written by Kotov and collaborators J. Lee, a postdoctoral associate in the Chemical Engineering Department, and A.O. Govorov, a professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Ohio University. (2006)
Suljo Linic, assistant professor of chemical engineering, received an NSF CAREER Award for his proposal, “Hybrid theoretical/ experimental studies of metal/metal oxide interface chemistry: the effect of oxide support on Au/oxide catalytic activity.”This project will employ a hybrid theoretical/ experimental approach combining Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculations and well-defined surface science experiments to address the issue of chemical activity at metal/oxide interfaces.
Joerg Lahann and several other U-M researchers have used electricity to create nanoparticles with two sides. According to Lahann, this technique could fuel a new research direction in the field, because the limits of size and shape are expanded. The new particles are exciting for several reasons and could be used in many applications including targeted drug delivery, or to create new self-assembling particles. The findings are published on-line in
Nature Materials.
(From U-M News Service) (9/2005)
("Biphasic Janus Particles with Nanoscale Anisotropy",Kyung-Ho Roh, David Martin, and Joerg Lahann , Nature Materials, 4, 759–763 (2005) Read article (PDF)
