My group’s research is on reactions at interfaces and developing microfluidic MEMS devices for biosynthesis and genetic diagnosis.

Currently the largest effort in my group is devoted towards making “biochips” or DNA and peptide chips for gene expression, SNP detection and drug – protein interactions. We are into our third generation DNA chips and microfluidic reactor systems. Our patented technology allows massively parallel synthesis of DNA oligomers and peptides on silicon/glass and plastic chips. In terms of application we are focusing on diagnostic applications in the area of water and food safety as well as medical diagnostics. For the future our focus will be slightly shifting towards massively parallel PCR based detection assays and to making combinatorial libraries of Si RNAs as well as synthetic genes. We collaborate extensively with colleagues in U of M and MSU.

Increased motor vehicle and electrical power usage demands continual improvement of air cleaning and hydrogen purification catalysts. We are developing and testing new supported catalysts by incorporating pre- synthesized metal crystallites in oxide supports by single step sol-gel processing. This method enables us to independently vary the metal crystallite size and the loading. So far this method has enabled us to make superior silver, gold, copper, and platinum based catalysts. However many challenges still remain in increasing the activity of the catalysts by a factor of almost ten and making them robust against poisoning and sintering. We have an ongoing collaboration in this area with colleagues from Ford Motor Co.