There is an ongoing a need for innovative undergraduate educational experiences that unify and reinforce fundamental principles at the interface between chemistry, physics, and the life sciences. This presentation describes our recent efforts to leverage microfluidics as a tool to address this need in core undergraduate chemical engineering coursework.First, we have developed hands-on lab activities that introduce students to biochemistry and molecular biology by challenging them to harness natural convection phenomena to perform DNA replication via the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). We have constructed convective PCR stations incorporating a simple design, along with a companion computational simulation that enables the influence of key physical and chemical parameters to be explored. This framework has also been applied as a foundation for a sustained undergraduate team effort to develop low-cost DNA-based diagnostic technology.Second, we have created hands-on microfluidic experiments that illustrate fundamental transport phenomena including capillary flow and viscous losses. In one experiment, students use standard commercially available capillary tubes to measure viscosity by recording the rate at which liquid enters the tube using their smartphone cameras. In another experiment, we have constructed a benchtop apparatus to measure pressure drops across microchannel networks so that the magnitude of viscous losses can be determined. Experimental results are verified using computational simulations.Finally, we have ported a conventional Brownian dynamics simulation into an Apple iPad application that provides a visual representation of polymer coil size, relaxation phenomena, Brownian motion, and transport under an external driving force (i.e., electrophoresis). Key parameters continuously reported during the simulation include radius of gyration Rg, end-to-end length L, largest and smallest spring lengths, and contour length (determined from the average spring length). This capability can be used to visualize the process of polymer stretching (single bead drag) or electrophoretic transport (whole polymer drag).

Using microfluidics to stimulate undergraduate engagement at the interface between the physical, chemical, and life sciences

248th National Meeting (2014)

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