UNM engineering - School of Engineering - University of New Mexico

Dimiter Petsev, assistant professor of chemicaland nuclear engineering, and Jeremy Edwards,assistant professor of molecular genetics andmicrobiology and assistant professor of chemicaland nuclear engineering, have been collaboratingthrough the CBME for a year and a half.In just two years, the center has received $8 million in grants.“We’ve already produced a 17-to-1 return on the university’sinvestment,” says Gabriel Lopez, director of the CBME andprofessor of chemical and nuclear engineering and chemistry.“We’re really proving that this kind of collaboration can beachieved here at UNM.”“test tubes” using a customized microscope, one of onlytwo in the world. The collaboration, which also involvesresearchers at Harvard University, is organized by the CBMEand is part of the National Science Foundation Partnershipfor Research and Education in Materials: UNM/HarvardPartnership for Leadership in Biomaterials.Here’s how some CBME researchers are engineeringbetter medicine:Droplets of DNAImagine a billion glass test tubes lined up, row after row, ina gigantic laboratory. Now, shrink that picture. Way down.Dimiter Petsev, assistant professor of chemical and nuclearengineering is using his expertise in microfluidic devices tofabricate miniaturized test tubes made of water droplets.Jeremy Edwards, assistant professor of molecular geneticsand microbiology and assistant professor of chemical andnuclear engineering, plans to use billions of these tiny testtubes to develop a fast, inexpensive way to sequence theDNA of patients with different cancers or even an individual’sentire genome.Each tiny drop, about ten microns in diameter, is loaded witha small fragment of DNA and a bit of reactant. Then, thedroplets are suspended in an oil emulsion and used for tests.Once the droplets are floating in the emulsion, Edwards usesa chemical process to break the droplets open. He reads thebiochemical results emanating from streams of these brokenPetsev’s challenge is to fabricate these minute droplets in auniform size and shape. With input from Harvard researchers,Petsev has achieved very fast production of highly uniformdroplets using microfluidic devices formed using a processcalled soft lithography. Through this process, a network ofchannels 10-100 micrometers deep and wide can easily beformed in a silicone rubber material. Petsev then bonds theprinted polymer channels on a glass slide and uses pressureor electric fields to force oil and water through separatechannels. The droplets form where the channels intersect.Petsev’s next challenge is perfecting the process of loadingthe DNA fragments into the droplets.Petsev and Edwards have been collaborating through theCBME for a year and a half. Petsev says access to the CBMEfacilities has been critical, but the opportunity to collaborateis most important. “There’s an exchange of information andideas here which is very beneficial for our multidisciplinarywork.” Edwards agrees. “I have an engineering backgroundbut I don’t have the ability to make microfluidic devices. Withengineers like Dimiter bringing their skills to the table, wecan achieve our goals.”UNM Engineering 07