Joshua B. Edel
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- Sub-wavelength optical imaging techniques for biomedical applications.
- Molecular switch based biochemical sensors.
- Portable and highly sensitive BioMEMs devices for cellular assays.
- Label free “whispering gallery mode” based biosensors.
- High throughput single molecule detection.
- Single molecule protein folding dynamics.
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Contact details:
Office: Institute of Biomedical Engineering
Imperial College London
Tel: +44 (0)20 7594 0754
Email: joshua.edel imperial.ac.uk
Web page: Personal Profile |
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Research Interests
Dr. Edel’s research activities lie in the general area of nanobiotechnology with an emphasis on the development of micro and nanofluidic devices for analytical and bio-analytical applications and ultra-high sensitivity optical detection techniques. For example, tools are being developed to study molecular dynamics confined within 5 - 500 nm wide fluidic channels. Combining nanofluidics with spectroscopy offers several major advantages for monitoring dynamics as this allows for the design of non-equilibrium experiments, in which biological processes can be initiated and monitored in real time. Another research area currently being pursued is in the use of microfluidic devices for high throughput parallel array detection capable of detecting rare cellular and molecular events at the single molecule level. The approach used is analogous to using a computing cluster as opposed to a single computer (i.e. the greater the number of processors in a cluster the quicker the computation time). In our research, the processors are replaced with fluidic channels in essence creating a super-fluidic chip.
Biography
Education:
- 1995 - 2000 B.Sc. (Hon.) University of British Columbia, Canada
- 2000 - 2003 Ph.D. Imperial College London, UK
- 2004 - 2005 Postdoctoral Fellow, Cornell University, USA
- 2005 - 2006 Postdoctoral Fellow, Rowland Institute at Harvard, Harvard University, USA
Awards:
- LabAutomation innovation award finalist (USA), 2005
- ALA academic grant winner (USA), 2005
- Overseas research studentship (UK), 2003
- National Research Council research award (Canada), 2000
- J. Muir Scholarship in Science (Canada), 2000
Member of the Royal Society of Chemistry, MRSC
Recent Publications
Huebner, A.; Srisa-Art, M.; Holt, D.; Abell, C.; Hollfelder, F.; deMello, A.J.; Edel, J.B.; "Monitoring protein expression in single cells in femtolitre droplets" Chem Comm. 2007 1218 – 1220.
Edel, JB, Eid, JS, Meller, A, “Accurate single molecule FRET efficiency determination for surface immobilized DNA using maximum likelihood calculated lifetimes” J Phys Chem B, 2007, Vol: 111, Pages: 2986 – 2990.
Edel, J.B.; de Mello, A.J. "Analysis of inter photon burst recurrence times to discriminate between different cell populations in a freely flowing solution" Applied Physics Letters 2007 (90) 053904.
*Liu H.Q.; *Edel, J.B.; Bellan, L.; Craighead, H.G. "Ensembles of Quantum Dots in Electrospun SU-8 Nanofibers as Subwavelength Waveguides" Small 2006 (2) 495- 499.
Research
We demonstrate that single cells can be controllably compartmentalized within aqueous microdroplets; using such an approach we perform high-throughput screening by detecting the expression of a fluorescent protein in individual cells with simultaneous measurement of droplet size and cell occupancy. The team used the microfluidic device to generate sub-nanolitre-sized droplets containing cells and monitored the cells' protein expression. The number of cells per droplet could be controlled by changing the experimental conditions. Also, using a microfluidic approach meant that the droplets could be created rapidly and in a well-defined size, potentially allowing fast and reliable screening.
Figure 1: Microfluidic Chip
 Figure 2: Optical instrumentation used for probing single molecules within micro and nanofluidic devices.
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