Welcome to Stanford Microfluidics Laboratory

The applications of microfluidics are among the greatest engineering challenges of the century and include drug discovery efforts, typing of single nucleotide polymorphisms for genetically-based drug prescription, fundamental genetics research, and proteomics.  The field lies at the interfaces between engineering, chemistry, and biology; and aims to develop lab-on-a-chip systems.

The technology has the potential to achieve the following:

•  Exploration of single cell and single molecule biophysics

•  Miniaturization and portability of chemical assays

•  Cost savings of minimal reagent use

•  Potential for massively-parallel and high-throughput biochemical analyses

Engineering challenges include the realization of optimized processes in mixing, reaction, separation, pre-concentration, and detection of chemical species.

The Stanford Microfluidics Laboratory operates under the direction of Professor Juan G. Santiago of the Department of Mechanical Engineering. A major theme of our lab is the  exploitation  of the physical regimes associated with micro- and nano-scale devices in order to achieve new functionality.  The long-term goal is to enable chemical and biological discoveries, help define the role of engineers in microfluidics, and educate the future leaders in the field.