Candidate:
Zack
Strike
Title:
Preliminary
Development
of
a
Microfluidic
Tool
for
the
Characterization
of
Molecular
Machines
Date:
December
14,
2021
Time:
13:00
Place:
online
Supervisor(s):
Backhouse,
Chris
(Adjunct)
-
Wright,
Derek
Abstract:
Droplet
interface
bilayers
(DIBs)
have
been
proposed
as
a
key
tool
to
better
study
transmembrane
proteins
and
their
quantum
biology.
This
work
focused
on
developing
a
microfluidic
device
for
the
formation
of
DIBs.
The
microfluidic
device
was
fabricated
by
laser
cutting
poly(methyl
methacrylate)
and
consisted
of
droplet
generating
and
droplet
trapping
modules.
A
T-junction
droplet
generator
was
designed
to
make
water
in
oil
droplets
reproducibly.
This
reproducibility
required
balancing
channel
resistances
and
changes
in
channel
resistance
due
to
droplet
formation.
Droplet
traps
were
designed
for
integration
into
the
droplet
generator
to
hold
two
droplets
to
form
a
DIB.
These
traps
held
droplets
using
a
trapping
pressure
equivalent
to
the
Laplace
pressure
difference
between
two
channels.
Due
to
the
unique
profile
of
laser-cut
channels,
a
new
method
of
calculating
the
trapping
pressure
of
droplet
traps
was
required.
Although
the
fabricated
devices
were
not
applied
to
the
study
of
transmembrane
proteins,
they
helped
develop
a
better
understanding
of
the
device
properties
and
design
process.
Tuesday, December 14, 2021 1:00 pm
-
1:00 pm
EST (GMT -05:00)