for Advanced Bioseparation and Analysis

Research Area and Objective: This research is in the area of investigating the unique physical phenomena associated with nanoscale structures and utilizing them for an engineering purpose. Specifically, our scientific goal is to render an accurate description of biomolecular structural changes, reaction, and transport in nanochannels as a function of built-in as well as externally applied potentials. The understanding of such fluid and molecular transport is imperative for the development of a new generation of devices for efficient separation of proteins in the context of their application to proteomics, environmental science, and advanced diagnostics. The technological and scientific outcome from this research will enable high throughput separation, purification, identification, and determination of structure-function relationships of biomolecular species and biomolecular complexes. Employed Experimental Methods: In order to study the molecular flow and its manipulation in nanochannels, we have developed two experimental platforms: (1) hybrid micro/nanofluidic “T-chip”[2, 3