报告题目 ：On-Chip Lipid Microfluidics: Controlled Self-Assembly to Form Biomembranes

报 告 人 ：Assoc. Prof. Nam-Joon Cho

     Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

主 持 人 ：孙洪波 教授

报告时间 ：2016年6月7日 15:00

报告地点 ：南区唐敖庆楼D区310报告厅

主办单位 ：电子科学与工程学院

      集成光电子学国家重点联合实验室

      物质科学吉林省高校高端科技创新平台

 Abstract: Controlled self-assembly of model lipid membranes at interfaces has important applications for biotechnology and nanomedicine. Recently, we developed the solvent-assisted lipid bilayer (SALB) method to form planar lipid bilayers at interfaces. A key feature of the SALB method is that the supported bilayers form in an energetically favored scenario. Moreover, the process does not require pre-formed precursor vesicles allowing for arbitrary compositions. Aided by lipid-substrate interactions, surface-adsorbed lipids in organic solvent are rapidly converted into lamellar phase, supported bilayer islands upon addition of aqueous buffer solution. Lipid species in the aqueous solution may attach to the bilayer islands and subsequently rupture to form a contiguous, supported lipid bilayer. Owing to the technically minimal requirements of solvent-assisted lipid self-assembly, we have developed on-chip lipid microfluidics that take advantage of the SALB method to form miniaturized biomembranes with a rich complexity of components reminiscent of natural cell membranes. In turn, all these capabilities should further enable academic investigations related to membrane biology and pharmaceutical drug development efforts towards high-throughput lipid membrane functional assays.

Nam-Joon Cho is Nanyang Associate Professor in the School of Materials Science and Engineering at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and Deputy Director of the Nanyang Institute of Technology in Health and Medicine. In addition, he is a Principal Investigator at the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology. His group’s research focuses on engineering approaches to solve important biomedical problems and to translate these capabilities into practical applications for global health. Dr. Cho’s scientific work has been highlighted by international media organizations such as Reuters, CNBC, and Businessweek, and is leading to major breakthroughs for the treatment of deadly pathogens. He has identified novel classes of drugs to treat hepatitis C virus which affects over 170 million people worldwide. Based on the success of this early work, Dr. Cho’s team is now pursuing similar strategies to examine the causes and consequences of infectious diseases, inflammatory disorders and cancer in order to provide improved diagnostic and therapeutic interventions. As part of these activities, Dr. Cho also leads a multi-institution tissue engineering collaboration involving NTU, Singapore General Hospital, and the Stanford University School of Medicine, which focuses on developing an artificial liver platform for regenerative medicine applications. He is a graduate of Stanford University and the University of California, Berkeley.