UChicago PME Immuno Special Seminar - Dr. Ismail Emre Araci

Tissue interfaced microfluidic systems for continuous disease management 

Over the past decade, in our lab, we engineered the mechanics of soft materials and interfaces, with the goal of continuously tracking physiological changes and managing chronic diseases. We fuse device physics—microfluidics, continuum mechanics, and optics—with soft materials and microfabrication to create skin-like capillaric systems. This framework has enabled contact-lens sensors that monitor intraocular pressure for glaucoma management and patches that read skin-strain fields to quantify human movement, as two example applications that I will focus on in my talk. I will share how coupling architecture, fluid flow, and skin biomechanics leads to robust, user-centric devices validated on benchtop, in silico, and in pilot human studies. I will close my talk with the description of operation principle and results of our latest platform: skin-like micropumps with self-actuating morphing valves that transform human movement into fluid flow—aimed at remote physical therapy tracking as well as exercise-synergistic drug delivery. 

Hosted by: Profs. Savas Tay & Sihong Wang