Fundamentals Mechanics for Future Microfluidics

Microfluidics is a multi-billion-dollars industry, finding application in industries as diverse as agriculture, tissue engineering, fertility treatment, food safety and cancer research. However, many practitioners who use microfluidic lab-on-chip devices for biomedical and chemical diagnostics are limited by an over-reliance on viscosity-dominated thin-film flows inside rigid channels. This symposium will assemble a select group of active scientists to explore the paradigm-shifting possibilities associated with other physical regimes that are attainable (yet often avoided) in microfluidic devices.