CBM² Hosts Seventh Annual "How to Make It/How to Use It" Workshop

The Center of BioModular Multi-Scale Systems for Precision Medicine (CBM²) hosted the annual “How to Make It/How to Use It” Workshop at Gray-Little Hall August 7th–9th. Participants from Kansas, Missouri, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Virginia, and Brazil attended lectures and received hands-on laboratory experiences concerning the design, manufacturing, and applications of microfluidic devices.

Center director Dr. Steve Soper opened the first day of lectures on “How to Make It” with an introduction to microfluidics and nanofluidics, covering the types of experiments that can be conducted with both technologies and examining the advantages and disadvantages of each. This was followed by lectures from Dr. Matt Hupert, Prof. Sunggook Park, and Prof. Adam Hall. That afternoon, participants were given a tour of the Gray-Little Hall cleanroom, where various fabrication techniques discussed in the lectures were shown. Demonstrations included optical lithography, 3D printing, injection molding, and preparation of resin stamps.

The second day of lectures on “How to Use It” topics included presentations from Dr. Maggie Witek, Mr. Collin Mckinney, Mr. Matt Verber, and researchers from the Soper Lab—Ms. Hanna Nguyen, Ms. Katie Childers, and Dr. Shakila Peli Thanthri. Following an afternoon of chip assembly demonstrations, guests gathered for a reception dinner at the Adams Alumni Center. That evening, Prof. Andy Godwin of the University of Kansas Medical Center gave a keynote address on the unique medical applications of fluidic devices—“Liquid Gold in Precision Medicine: Liquid-Based Biopsies for Cancer Detection and Monitoring.”

On the final day of the workshop, participants were able to see the completed nanofluidic device in use as they ran assays to determine the presence of viruses or peptides in a sample. After this hands-on experience, Mr. Matt Verber discussed the results and methods for interpreting the data to conclude the workshop.