SURFACE FUNCTIONALIZATION IN MICROFLUIDICS
Sung Gap Im, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST)
Ying-Chih Chang, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan and Stanford University, California, USA (Adjunct)

Workshop Description:
Sung Gap Im portion:
A new polymer deposition method, the initiated chemical vapor deposition (iCVD), was utilized for fabrication of novel thin film materials and structures. The iCVD is a process that can deposit functional polymer films with the exceptional compositional control and conformality. The solvent-free process provides non-toxic coatings of anti-microbial, superhydrophobic, functionalizable, insulating, and bio-compatible polymers without damaging underlying substrates. With this versatile tool, we are exploiting the possibility of the functional polymer coatings to develop next-generation engineering devices. In this workshop, we are focusing on the application of functional.

Ying-Chih Chang portion:
Microfluidic platforms are effective tools for enriching and isolating target cell subpopulation, such as circulating tumor cells, stem cells, and bacteria, in complex fluids. One of the most common strategy is affinity-based design where the inner channels are coated with immobilized antibody/ aptamer to specifically bind only the cells of interest, while the remaining cells passing through. In this workshop, I will explain the rationale and the importance of universal materials design strategy to promote multivalency of surface coated antibody molecules with the membrane receptors of target cells. Fluidic surface coatings such as biomimetic lipid membrane, dendrimer, layer-by-layer polyelectrolytes and the combination of them are effective in dynamic capturing and subsequent releasing target cells with high sensitivity, specificity and viability.

Overview of Material to Be Covered and What Attendees Can Expect to Take Away From the Workshop:

• Challenges lie in the surface modification of microfluidic chips
• Functional polymer films and a vapor-phase deposition method to coat them conformally on biochip surfaces
• New types of high-performance biochips enabled by the conformal surface modification by functional polymer coatings

Who Should Attend:
Researchers at any levels who are interested in 1) new type of functional polymer films, 2) their application to conformal surface modification of biochip channel, 3) microfluidic design for cell isolation and manipulation. 4) non-covalent fluidic surface coating in microfluidics.

Participants Will Need the Following:
No special requirements.