Dr Joshua B. Edel

Biography

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.

Research Interests

Dr. Joshua 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

• Nanoparticles
• Biophysics
• Nanolithography
• Nanofluidics
• Optics

Research

Microfluidic Chip

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.

Facilities in your Research Group

• Fluorescence lifetime imaging rig
• Scanning confocal microscope
• Confocal microscope
• Ultra high speed imaging microscope
• SEM
• High speed Raman spectrometer
• TIRF microscope
• Single molecule confocal microscope
• Ultra low current instrumentation
• Clean room

Research topic/technique/areaI. Research Areas
I.Biomedicine
Biophysics
Carbon Nanostructures
Device engineering
Liquid/disorder + Nanofluids
Magnetism and Spintronics
Nanomechanics
Nanoparticles
Nuclear materials
Organic & Molecular electronics
Photonics
Semiconductors
Superconductors
Sustainable energy
Thin films, surfaces, and interfaces

II. Techniques
Theoretical and Computational Techniques
Analytic Theory
Classical Simulations
Density Functional Theory (DFT)

Experimental Techniques
Electrical transport
Nanolithography
Nanomaterials synthesis
Nanofluidics
Optics
Optoelectronics
Scanning Probes
STM
AFM
SNOM
Spin Resonance
Surface Analysis
TEM
Thin Film Growth
Tissue Engineering
X-ray and Neutron Scattering

III. Applications
Healthcare
IT
Planetcare

Figure 1: Microfluidic Chip

Optical instrumentation used for probing single molecules within micro and nanofluidic devices.

Figure 2: Optical instrumentation used for probing single molecules within micro and nanofluidic devices.