Liquid-liquid Interfacial Engineering for Droplet Microfluidics
面向液滴微流控的液-液界面工程
Anderson Shum（岑浩璋）
ABSRACT
Biological systems are highly hierarchical with biological cells playing a vital role in sustaining activities essential for growth, development and living. While the complexity and functions of biological cells are yet to be fully matched in “artificial cells” by synthetic or engineering approaches, new cellular components, such as liquid organelles, are still being discovered by cell biologists. A comprehensive understanding of these cellular and biological dynamics requires abilities to identify, observe, monitor, and manipulate these tiny constituents with high precision. Advances in droplet microfluidic techniques have not only led to tools for enhancing the precision and throughput in analyses of cells, but also inspire new ways to develop “artificial cells” and even “artificial liquid organelles”. In this talk, I will describe some of the examples our group has worked on towards these goals: (1) Droplet microfluidic platforms for isolating droplets containing arbitrary number of targets, such as single cells; (2) All-aqueous emulsion systems with enhanced biocompatibility and affinity partitioning, as well as interfaces with surface dynamics and permeability properties resembling those of biological cell membranes; and (3) Aqueous droplets that combine aqueous phase separation and hydrodynamic breakup for forming unconventional droplet shapes and structures. I will conclude the talk by highlighting the promising features of these systems for understanding their biological counterparts, and discussing how the understanding may motivate the design and engineering of new hierarchical materials with cell-like properties.
生物系统是具有多级结构的高度分化系统，细胞在维持生命体的生存，生长， 发育起着至关重要的作用。然而，不仅生物细胞的复杂性和功能性尚未通过合成或工程方法在“人造细胞”中完全实现，而且人们关于对新的细胞组成，如液态凝聚体的研究，也尚待被发掘。对细胞中各个组分的高精度的识别，观察，监测和操控有助于我们全面理解细胞及其内部生命活动的动态过程。液滴微流技术的发展不但使细胞的高通量及高精度分析成为可能，而且为开发“人造液体细胞器”甚至“人造细胞”提供了新思路。本次报告中将介绍本课题组的相关工作：（1）用液滴微控平台分离包含可控数量被载物质（如细胞）的液滴；（2）有很好生物相容性，可以富集特定生物大分子，以及界面具有类似生物膜通透性的全水相系统； （3） 结合液液相分离与流体动力学形成的非圆形全水相液滴。在报告的结尾， 将重点强调以液滴微流控为基础的全水相系统与其对应生物系统的高度相似性，并进一步讨论如何将这些相关特性应用于具有细胞样特性的新型高级材料的设计中。
BIOGRAPHY
Professor Anderson Ho Cheung Shum, Department of Mechanical Engineering and Biomedical Engineering Programme, The University of Hong Kong, where he is also an Associate Head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering.
His research interests include emulsions, biomicrofluidics, biomedical engineering and soft matter. Dr. Shum received Croucher Senior Research Fellowship 2020, Rising Start Award by Ton Duc Thang University (Vietnam), NSFC Excellent Young Scientist Fund (優青 (港澳)/优青(港澳)) in 2019, Young Scientists Award in Microsystems and Nanoengineering Summit 2019, silver medals in the 46th and 47th International Exhibition of Inventions (Geneva, Switzerland) in 2018 and 2019, IEEE Nanomed New Innovator 2018, Top 1% scholar by Essential Science Indicators 2018, HKU Outstanding Young Researcher award 2016-17, HKU Research Output Prize 2017, the Early Career Award by the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong in 2012, Graduate Student Silver Award from the Materials Research Society in Spring 2010, Robert L. Wallace Prize Fellowship from Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences in 2006-2007, as well as Notable mention in Art of Competition, Award for Overall Excellence in Chemical Engineering, Proctor & Gamble (P&G) Award for Outstanding Design Project, and Ticona Award for Outstanding Student Thesis from Princeton University in 2005. He joined the Young Academy of Sciences of Hong Kong as a founding member in 2018 and the Royal Society of Chemistry as a fellow in 2017. He serves as an associate editor for Biomicrofluidics (AIP), a co-guest-editor for a Special Issue on Microfluidics 2020 in Small (Wiley), editorial board member for Scientific Reports (Springer Nature) and an editorial advisory board member for Lab-on-a-Chip (RSC).
岑浩璋教授来自于香港大学机械工程和生物医学工程系，同时他也担任香港大学机械工程系的副系主任。 岑浩璋教授的研究方向包括乳液，生物微流控，生物医学工程及软物质。岑浩璋教授先后获得香港裘槎基金会高级研究成就奖 （2020）、Rising Start Award（越南孙德盛大学）、国家自然科学基金委优秀青年学者奖（优青（港澳））（2019）、青年科学家奖 (Microsystems & Nanoengineering Summit, 2019) 、第46和47届日内瓦国际发明展银奖（2018，2019）、Nanomed New Innovator（IEEE, 2018）、入选ESI Top 1%学者(2018) 、Outstanding Young Researcher award（HKU, 2016-2017）、Research Output Prize （HKU, 2017）、the Early Career Award （Research Grants Council，HKU, 2012）Graduate Student Silver Award (Materials Research Society, 2010) 、Robert L. Wallace 奖章 （2006-2007）、Proctor & Gamble (P&G) 奖，以及普林斯顿大学优秀毕业论文奖 （2005）等奖项。他于2018年入选香港青年科学院，2017年入选为 英国皇家化学学会会士。他同时担任Biomicrofluidics（AIP）的副编辑，Small 特刊“Microfluidics”(2020)的特邀编辑，Scientific Reports (Springer Nature) 编辑委员会成员 以及Lab-on-a-Chip (RSC) 编辑顾问委员会成员。