"Big payoff in small plumbing: Microfluidics to speed up drug development”

Gene Dantsker, Ph. D., Nanostream Inc. 

 Abstract

 “Microfluidics” is a technology of “miniature plumbing”, also known as lab-on-a-chip – biology and chemistry labs that you can hold in your hand. Plumbing components such as channels, mixers, splitters, and valves are integrated into a microchip and used to manipulate nanoliters of liquid. Microfluidic systems have the potential to break bottlenecks in drug development and revolutionize biochemical analysis and high throughput screening.

Nanostream, Inc. was founded in 1999 in response to the dynamic nature of this expanding industry. By combining expertise from a wide range of technical disciplines, Nanostream developed a “modular” approach to microfluidics for mass customization in drug discovery and other disciplines. This talk will focus on the nature and applications of microfluidics as well as career opportunities in entrepreneurship.

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Gene Dantsker, Ph. D., Vice President of Technology, Nanostream Inc. 

Gene Dantsker holds a Ph. D. in Physics from the University of California at Berkeley. He was one of the co-founders of Nanostream and has led the development of technology at Nanostream since the founding. Prior to joining Nanostream, Dr. Dantsker was a scientist at TRW, Inc. He has authored multiple patents and over 40 publications on microfabrication and device physics involving diverse and often exotic materials.