Darren R. Link, Ph.D., of RainDance Technologies, Inc., will present "Biology in Pico-Liter Droplets," a discussion of the commercialization of the use of picoliter droplets in microfluidic channels for applications in the life sciences, at the LabAutomation2009 conference on Wednesday, January 28, 2009, in Palm Springs, Calif.
RainDance Technologies is a provider of innovative microdroplet-based solutions which enable and benefit biological applications utilized in human health and disease research.
"In typical applications, cells, nucleic acids, enzymes, or other reagents are encapsulated in aqueous phase droplets dispersed in a fluorinated carrier oil. These droplets range from sub-picoliter to tens of nanoliters in volume, and are manipulated on an individual basis to perform bioassays. Manipulations such as adding reagents or sorting droplets based on their optical properties are achieved solely through the application of external electric fields. Since electric fields can be turned on or off at very high speeds, sorting rates exceeding several thousand per second are readily achieved. We will introduce the techniques used to generate and manipulate droplets and show several of the biological applications that are enabled by this technology," said Dr. Link.
Dr. Link is Co-Founder and Vice President, Research and Development, RainDance Technologies (www.RainDancetech.com). He holds a B.S. degree in physics from Montana State University and a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Colorado. Before joining RainDance, he spent two years at Harvard University as a postdoctoral scientist studying soft materials physics in the department of physics and division of engineering and applied sciences. Dr. Link spent two years at Tokyo Institute of Technology as a postdoctoral scientist studying liquid crystalline materials. He has received grant funding from the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and participated in the National Science Foundation's U.S.-Japan exchange program for young scientists in Nanotechnology. Dr. Link has co-authored more than 45 peer-reviewed articles and 10 patent applications. He also serves on the Industrial Advisory Board of the Vanderbilt Institute for Integrative Biosystems Research and Education.
Dr. Link will present "Biology in Pico-Liter Droplets" as part of the Micro- and Nanotechnologies conference track LabAutomation2009, Wednesday, January 28, 2009, from 9:30 AM to 10:00 AM at the Wyndham Hotel in Pasadena.
LabAutomation2009 (www.labautomation.org/LA09), the world's leading conference and exhibition on emerging laboratory technologies, runs January 24-28, 2009.