Elliot E. Hui, Ph.D. Assistant Professor Biomedical Engineering UC Irvine

“Spatial and Temporal Control of Microscale Biological Systems”

Microfabrication is an enabling technology with a broad set of applications that continues to grow. Here, I will discuss our efforts to control tissue structure at the microscale for the purpose of investigating the biology of cell-cell interactions. Specifically, I will describe our work towards understanding the communication between tumors and their surrounding stroma, and the role of these interactions in cancer progression. In addition, I will share our progress in creating next-generation chip-based liquid handling platforms. Specifically, we have succeeded in building computers completely out of microfluidic components, which may enable lab-on-a-chip diagnostic systems that run autonomously without off-chip controllers.

Short Bio:  Elliot Hui is Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the University of California, Irvine. He received the bachelor’s degree in Physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley. Following his doctoral work in microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) under Roger Howe, he studied liver tissue engineering as an NIH Kirschstein fellow in the laboratory of Sangeeta Bhatia at MIT. In 2008, he joined the faculty at UC Irvine. His research group employs tools such as MEMS, microfluidics, and optogenetics to control biological systems dynamically at the microscale. His interests include tumor progression and stem cell differentiation as well as point-of-care diagnostics. He is a recipient of the 2013 DARPA Young Faculty Award and the 2014 JALA Ten Breakthroughs in Innovation. He is a member of the Center for Advanced Design and Manufacturing of Integrated Microfluidics, the Center for Complex Biological Systems, and the Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Location
1005 GBSF