Microfluidics for Low Cost Medical Diagnostics

Meeting Date

Tuesday, September 10, 2002

Speaker 

Paul Yager, Ph.D, University of Washington

Program

The best medical technology today resides almost exclusively in

centralized laboratories. The performance of quantitative

immunoassays is today largely restricted to centralized laboratories

because of the need for long assay times, complex and expensive

equipment, and highly trained technicians. If a wider range of the

700 million immunoassays performed annually in the US alone could be

run more inexpensively, more frequently, and at the point of care,

the health of millions of patients could be improved. This is also

an issue in the detection of chemical and biological warfare agents.

The microfluidic devices invoke many principles of chemical

engineering: flow, mass transfer, reaction engineering,

miniaturization, pumping, metering, etc., but their small size brings

new benefits and challenges.

Chemical engineering principles have been used to develop a

microfluidic diffusion immunoassay (DIA) that may provide a new set

of biochemical processes and a common analytical platform that are

well suited to such miniaturized and simplified instrumentation. DIA

can monitor drugs and hormones, for example, even with concentrations

below the 1-10 µM range demonstrated so far. The talk will identify

key advances that make this technology feasible in the marketplace.

About the Speaker

Paul Yager is a Professor and Vice Chair of the Department of

Bioengineering at the University of Washington, with Adjunct

appointments in Chemical Engineering and Chemistry. He has an

active research group that has been issued several patents in the

area of microfluidics, and his technology has led to the startup of a

local company, Micronics. A major goal of his work is to allow

decentralization of medical diagnostics by making the technology

cheaper while maintaining sensitivity and reliability, ultimately

bringing sophisticated medical testing to the home.

Schedule

            6 p.m. Social Hour

            7 p.m. Dinner

            8 p.m. Speaker

Meeting Location

Rock Salt on Latitude 47° , 1232 Westlake Avenue North, Seattle

From Interstate 5 in Seattle, take exit number 167 – Mercer Street/Seattle Center

Keep right at the fork in the ramp.

Turn right onto Fairview Avenue North.

Turn left onto Valley Street.

Turn slight right onto Westlake Ave North.

The restaurant is located at 1232 Westlake Avenue North.

The meeting room is on the lower level.

Menu Choices: 

1. Half Roasted Chicken – Half chicken breast with roasted garlic, olive oil, and fresh herbs, OR,

2. Prawn Linguini – Wild Gulf prawns tossed with tomato, fresh basil, garlic, chili flakes, and linguini fini. 

All dinners come with Caesar salad, entrée, rosemary potatoes, fresh vegetables, bread and butter, coffee or tea.

Cost: $25.00, cash or check payable to PSS AIChE

NOTES

1.  Please pay by check made out to Puget Sound Section AIChE, or bring exact change.

2.  For reservations:  

3. You can cancel by calling by noon the Thursday before the meeting. Dinner reservations "no-shows" will be billed !!