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When Cells Hit the Wall: UCLA Engineers Put The Squeeze on Cells to Diagnose Disease

By Guest PostMay 6, 2012Health, Scienceaids, amander clark, balloon, cancer, cells, chemical tags, chronic inflammation, cytopathologist, daniel gossett, deformability cytometer, diagnose disease, dino di carlo, dna arrangement, elastic properties, extract information, henry tse, honey, immune disorder, immune system, infection, jian yu rao, mesothelial cells, microfluidic chip, nuclei, rubber balloon, shape, software, steven chu, Technology, ucla engineers, viscous, white blood cells

If you throw a rubber balloon filled with water against a wall, it will spread out and deform on impact, while the same balloon filled with honey, which is more viscous, will deform much less. If the balloon’s elastic rubber was stiffer, an even smaller change in shape would be observed.

By simply analyzing how much a balloon changes shape upon hitting a wall, you can uncover information about its physical properties.

Although cells are not simple sacks of fluid, they also contain viscous and elastic properties related to the membranes that surround them; their internal structural elements, such as organelles; and the packed DNA arrangement in their nuclei. Because variations in these properties can provide information about cells’ state of activity and can be indicative of diseases such as cancer, they are important to measure. (more…)

U of T Engineering Professor Develops Microfluidic Chips for Bitumen Gas Analysis

By Guest PostFebruary 29, 2012Environment, Scienceatmosphere, behaviour of bitumen, bitumen, bitumen gas interaction, carbon dioxide, carbon management canada, CO2, david sinton, fossil energy, fossil energy industry, gas bitumen diffusion, glass microchip, hazardous solvents, heavy oil, high pressure co2, hossein fadaei, mechanical engineering, methods of extraction, microfluidic chip, petroleum, pore, reservoir, rock reservoir

*Device could save time and money for oil/gas industry*

Mechanical engineering professor David Sinton and his research team have developed a process to analyze the behaviour of bitumen in reservoirs using a microfluidic chip, a tool commonly associated with the field of medical diagnostics. The process may reduce the cost and time of analyzing bitumen-gas interaction in heavy oil and bitumen reservoirs.

Sinton and post-doctoral researcher Hossein Fadaei are using the chips to examine the way highly pressurized carbon dioxide (CO₂) behaves when injected into bitumen, which is a type of petroleum. The new method, reported in the journal Energy & Fuels, could streamline the way fossil energy companies measure how gases move within heavier oils like bitumen. (more…)

Tag Archives: microfluidic chip

When Cells Hit the Wall: UCLA Engineers Put The Squeeze on Cells to Diagnose Disease

U of T Engineering Professor Develops Microfluidic Chips for Bitumen Gas Analysis