University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Droplet microfluidics for the study of multiphase fluid dynamics and the development of synthetic cells

Jing, Wenyang

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/122241

Description

Title
Droplet microfluidics for the study of multiphase fluid dynamics and the development of synthetic cells
Author(s)
Jing, Wenyang
Issue Date
2023-12-01
Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)
Han, Hee-Sun
Doctoral Committee Chair(s)
Han, Hee-Sun
Committee Member(s)
  • Ewoldt, Randy H.
  • Lu, Ting
  • Wu, Nicholas C.H.
Department of Study
School of Molecular & Cell Bio
Discipline
Biophysics & Quant Biology
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
  • Microfluidics
  • Drop
  • GUV
  • Synthetic Cell
  • Droplet
Abstract
Microfluidics has seen wide use for both enabling new technologies and for fundamental studies owing to its virtues of small volumes, fluid physics and manipulation at the microscale, and integrated functionalities of actuation, sensing, and separation. Droplet microfluidics possesses these general advantages and adds on top of that multiphase flow dynamics and analyte compartmentalization, making it particularly useful for bioassays such as single-cell RNA sequencing and digital polymerase chain reaction (ddPCR), for example. This thesis describes work that utilizes droplet microfluidics both as a as a tool for biological applications and as a system for investigating multiphase fluid dynamics. For the former, droplet microfluidics is utilized for single-molecule detection of circular RNAs (circRNAs) by ddPCR and for templating giant unilamellar vesicles (GUVs) toward the bottom-up assembly of synthetic cells using both single and double emulsions. Fundamental fluid dynamics are also studied. Inertial ordering of multi-droplet trains was investigated, where hydrodynamic interactions are shown to be enable the self-assembly of droplets into well-spaced trains or lead to disorder in contrast to the established observations involving solid particles. These dynamics also have utility toward droplet manipulation for bioassays. Finally, fluid dynamics were investigated for both separating GUVs by size and for their production using the dewetting of double emulsions.
Graduation Semester
2023-12
Type of Resource
Thesis
Copyright and License Information
Copyright 2023 Wenyang Jing

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