Microfluidics Webinars 2020

Purpose

This webinar series will offer participants the opportunity to learn about the utility of thermoplastic devices for a number of important application areas – microfluidics and nanofluidics for biology/biomedicine. Specifically, differences will be made between the use of plastics compared to glass/silicon and PDMS in terms of fabrication, application, and surface chemistry. We will also discuss patterning structures across different length scales (nm → µm) in plastics and become familiar device assembly and modifying the surfaces of plastics. This webinar series will be important for all whom are familiar with microfluidics and/or nanofluidics, but have little to no experiences in working with thermoplastics.

Intended Audience

Researchers (faculty, students, post-docs, private sector) wanting to learn more about what thermoplastic microfluidic and nanofluidic devices can do, how to make microfluidic and nanofluidic devices using thermoplastics, and methods for modification of thermoplastic surfaces to meet application needs.

Venue

While this will be an electronic venue, we will provide both lectures and short demonstrations on relevant equipment to familiarize viewers with the operation of equipment being discussed in the webinars.

Lectures

Webinar 1 (November 2) – Introduction to plastics, prototyping techniques for producing thermoplastic devices, and methods for assembling plastic devices. Webinar 2 (November 9) – Hot embossing and injection molding of microstructures and generation of molding tools. Webinar 3 (November 16) – Patterning nanostructures and transferring to thermoplastics. Webinar 4 (November 23) – Methods for activating and functionalizing thermoplastic surfaces.

Lecturers

Steven A. Soper and Maggie Witek (University of Kansas); Michael Murphy and Sunggook Park (Louisiana State University).

Registration Fees

The cost for attendance is FREE. The platform we will use is ZOOM and in late October, we will be sending out to the community, the webinar ZOOM addresses.

Contacts

Lindsey Roe (lindseyp@ku.edu); Steven A. Soper (ssoper@ku.edu); Maggie Witek (mwitek@ku.edu)

Registration

None needed.

Sponsors

National Institutes of Health (CBM2 Precision Medicine)