EPFL BioE Talks SERIES "Towards Better Diagnostics and Biomarkers: Microfluidics, 3D Printing, and Single Extracellular Vesicle Analysis"
Event details
| Date | 28.04.2025 |
| Hour | 12:15 › 13:15 |
| Speaker | Prof. David Juncker, Biomedical Engineering Dept. McGill University, Montreal (CAN) |
| Location | Online |
| Category | Conferences - Seminars |
| Event Language | English |
WEEKLY EPFL BIOE TALKS SERIES (sandwiches provided)
Abstract:
Early and accurate diagnostics could greatly improve health and well-being, but are often not available when needed because of technological barriers and lack of biomarkers. This presentation will summarize our efforts in advanced microfluidics and 3D printing for point-of-care diagnostics, and single extracellular vesicle (EV) analysis for uncovering biomarkers. Capillary microfluidics can be made by 3D printing as autonomous systems thanks to self-powered, pre-programmed (i.e. structurally-encoded) microfluidic circuits called capillarics. The development of very low-cost, high-resolution 3D stereolithography printing for making microfluidics will be described. These two advances may pave the way for distributed digital manufacturing of rapid diagnostics at the point-of-need. Results in the design, operation, and manufacturing of capillarics for point-of-care diagnostics, will be shown, including with very low cost ($300) LCD 3D printers, that open the door for anyone anywhere to make their own. Next, EVs, small lipid vesicles between ~ 40 – 400 nm will be discussed and their potential as biomarkers explained, especially if measured individually. Yet bulk analysis of EVs remains favoured because of technical limitations. We introduced a new method for single EV analysis called size photometry and fluorescence imaging (SPFI) for the high throughput, concomitant label-free sizing and fluorescence imaging of single EVs on a common fluorescence microscope. The use of SPFI with barcoded antibodies opens the door to high multiplex affinity proteomics of single EVs. Proof-of-concept studies on cell line EVs, EVs spiked into plasma, and patient samples uncovering EV biology and potential biomarkers will be shown.
Bio:
David Juncker holds a Canada Research Chair in Bioengineering and is a Professor in the department of Biomedical Engineering at McGill University in Montreal, while also currently serving as department chair. David obtained a Diploma (1995), and PhD (2002) from the Institute of Microtechnology (now part of EPFL) at the University of Neuchâtel (CH) for research conducted at the IBM Zurich Research Laboratory. David started as an assistant professor at McGill in 2005.
David’s group’s research is a mix of grand challenges and of curiosity-driven interdisciplinary efforts in bioengineering including microfluidics, microfabrication, imaging, diagnostics, assay multiplexing, biomarker discovery, and organ-on-a-chip. Some of the highlights of the lab’s accomplishments include the ideation and realization of capillary microfluidic systems and capillaric circuits culminating in microfluidic chain reactions and the ELISA-chip; microfluidic probes for microfluidics without microchannels; affordable, scalable cross-reactivity free multiplexed sandwich immunoassays thanks to antibody colocalization microarrays and colocalization-by-linkage assays on microparticles. 3D printing (DLP & LCD) and digital manufacturing of functional microfluidic systems; single extracellular vesicle (EV) size photometry & protein co-expression analysis using a conventional fluorescence microscope. Several companies were spun-off from his lab, notably Sensoreal (capillaric circuits) and Nomic Bio (affinity proteomics).
Zoom link (with one-time registration for the whole series) for attending remotely: https://go.epfl.ch/EPFLBioETalks
Instructions for 1st-year Ph.D. students who are under EDBB’s mandatory seminar attendance rule:
IN CASE you cannot attend in-person in the room, please make sure to
Abstract:
Early and accurate diagnostics could greatly improve health and well-being, but are often not available when needed because of technological barriers and lack of biomarkers. This presentation will summarize our efforts in advanced microfluidics and 3D printing for point-of-care diagnostics, and single extracellular vesicle (EV) analysis for uncovering biomarkers. Capillary microfluidics can be made by 3D printing as autonomous systems thanks to self-powered, pre-programmed (i.e. structurally-encoded) microfluidic circuits called capillarics. The development of very low-cost, high-resolution 3D stereolithography printing for making microfluidics will be described. These two advances may pave the way for distributed digital manufacturing of rapid diagnostics at the point-of-need. Results in the design, operation, and manufacturing of capillarics for point-of-care diagnostics, will be shown, including with very low cost ($300) LCD 3D printers, that open the door for anyone anywhere to make their own. Next, EVs, small lipid vesicles between ~ 40 – 400 nm will be discussed and their potential as biomarkers explained, especially if measured individually. Yet bulk analysis of EVs remains favoured because of technical limitations. We introduced a new method for single EV analysis called size photometry and fluorescence imaging (SPFI) for the high throughput, concomitant label-free sizing and fluorescence imaging of single EVs on a common fluorescence microscope. The use of SPFI with barcoded antibodies opens the door to high multiplex affinity proteomics of single EVs. Proof-of-concept studies on cell line EVs, EVs spiked into plasma, and patient samples uncovering EV biology and potential biomarkers will be shown.
Bio:
David Juncker holds a Canada Research Chair in Bioengineering and is a Professor in the department of Biomedical Engineering at McGill University in Montreal, while also currently serving as department chair. David obtained a Diploma (1995), and PhD (2002) from the Institute of Microtechnology (now part of EPFL) at the University of Neuchâtel (CH) for research conducted at the IBM Zurich Research Laboratory. David started as an assistant professor at McGill in 2005.
David’s group’s research is a mix of grand challenges and of curiosity-driven interdisciplinary efforts in bioengineering including microfluidics, microfabrication, imaging, diagnostics, assay multiplexing, biomarker discovery, and organ-on-a-chip. Some of the highlights of the lab’s accomplishments include the ideation and realization of capillary microfluidic systems and capillaric circuits culminating in microfluidic chain reactions and the ELISA-chip; microfluidic probes for microfluidics without microchannels; affordable, scalable cross-reactivity free multiplexed sandwich immunoassays thanks to antibody colocalization microarrays and colocalization-by-linkage assays on microparticles. 3D printing (DLP & LCD) and digital manufacturing of functional microfluidic systems; single extracellular vesicle (EV) size photometry & protein co-expression analysis using a conventional fluorescence microscope. Several companies were spun-off from his lab, notably Sensoreal (capillaric circuits) and Nomic Bio (affinity proteomics).
Zoom link (with one-time registration for the whole series) for attending remotely: https://go.epfl.ch/EPFLBioETalks
Instructions for 1st-year Ph.D. students who are under EDBB’s mandatory seminar attendance rule:
IN CASE you cannot attend in-person in the room, please make sure to
- send D. Reinhard a note well ahead of time (ideally before seminar day), informing that you plan to attend the talk online, and, during seminar:
- be signed in on Zoom with a recognizable user name (not any alias making it difficult or impossible to identify you).
Practical information
- Informed public
- Registration required
Organizer
- Prof. Hatice Altug, Institute of Bioengineering
Contact
- Institute of Bioengineering (IBI), Dietrich REINHARD