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Department of Bioengineering

Senior Design Projects

ASSURED Bacterial Detection towards Paper-Based Microfluidic Chip for Resource-Limited Areas

Willy Leineweber, Mallory Williams
Advisor: Unyoung (Ashley) Kim
The World Health Organization estimates that over 3 million people die yearly from waterborne illnesses. To this end, we propose a preventative diagnostic device that utilizes a paper-based sandwich assay and smart phone application to detect the presence of bacterial pathogens in water samples.

Electrochemical Detection of Nitrate

won the Best of Session

Monica DeLazzari, Kristina Howard, Lillian Tatka
Advisor: Unyoung (Ashley) Kim

This project aims to develop a low cost, user friendly, accurate, and portable device for the electrochemical detection of nitrate in drinking water, for use in developing countries where this problem is prevalent.

Micro-Controller: Part 2

Bergen Antell, Michael McNaul, Steve Shushnar
Advisor: Unyoung (Ashley) Kim

Our goal is allow paralyzed children and adults the ability to play chess. This requires additional construction of a micro-controller adding a motorized 3rd axis and a finger gripper to pick up chess pieces.

Tongue Suspension Suture for Obstructive Sleep Apnea Patients

won the Best of Session

Erin Araj, Leah Karlsen, Abigail Kilkenny
Advisor: Unyoung (Ashley) Kim

Our goal is to create an elastic, biocompatible tongue suspension implant for obstructive sleep apnea patients (OSA), that eliminates the need to be tethered to the mandible and incorporates Siesta Medical's Encore Tongue Suspension System.

Electrochemical Detection of Arsenic Using a Microfluidic Sensing Platform

won the Best of Session

Ben Demaree, Allie Sibole, Jessica VanderGiessen
Advisor: Unyoung (Ashley) Kim

Arsenic contamination of water sources is a global health concern affecting up to 200 million people. This proposed device, consisting of a three-electrode system and disposable substrate, allows for point-of-use detection of arsenic when integrated with an electrochemical analyzer and mobile application.

Electrolysis Powered Micropump Utilizing Planar Check Valves

won the Best of Session

Aleen Michaelian, Connie Truong
Advisor: Unyoung (Ashley) Kim

To address the growth of point of care (POC) diagnostics, we have developed a low-power, low-cost, and compact micropump that easily integrates with lab-on-a-chip devices in POC applications. Powered by electrolysis and controlled by a planar membrane and check valves,this micropump supplies precise microliter amounts of fluid.

Microchip Capillary Electrophoresis

Scott Hardy, Daniel Shull, Mark Vinopal
Advisors: John Birmingham, Unyoung (Ashley) Kim, Steven Suljak

Many neuromuscular diseases can be caused by irregular amounts of bioamine neuromodulators. To this end, we designed and implemented a microfluidic device to quickly and precisely detect concentrations of bioamines in a sample. Such a device could analyze hemolymph from the Cancer borealis crab, which contains many bioamines found in humans.

Affordable, Self-Contained and Quantitative Microfluidic Device for the Detection of Arsenic Contamination in Groundwater Samples

won the Best of Session

Kyle Perricone, Mary Reynolds
Advisor: Unyoung (Ashley) Kim

Our electrochemical solution utilizes a three-electrode system with modified carbon-ink electrodes printed onto a disposable substrate to determine trace amounts of arsenic in water. We intend this device to meet the World Health Organization's (WHO's) ASSURED criteria for third-world diagnostic devices.

Amperometric Detection of Bioamines in Cancer Borealis, Using Microchip Capillary Electrophoresis Integrated with Micellar Chromatography

Jason Howard, Chrissy Shuh, Ajay Fernandez
Advisors: Unyoung (Ashley) Kim, Steven Suljak, John Birmingham

We designed and fabricated a microfluidic device capable of separating and detecting nanomolar concentrations of bioamines. The device combines capillary electrophoresis, micellar electrokinetic chromatography, and amperometric detection to quantify bioamines in the pericardial cavity of the crab, Cancer borealis. The research may enhance scientists' understanding of the human nervous system.

Detection of Waterborne Pathogens

Allison Kamiya
Advisor: Unyoung (Ashley) Kim

We seek to develop a portable device for the developing world powered by cellular phone. Utilizing a biological sensor developed to detect RNA of these waterborne pathogens and mapping the electrical output of this sensor further miniaturizes the device and decreases the power needed to run it.

Automated Utility Testing Operations (A.U.T.O.)

John Fresquez, Zuhayr Elahi
Advisors: Raffi Attarian, Unyoung (Ashley) Kim
The PEAK PlasmaBlade provides precise tissue dissection with the bleeding control of electrosurgery. During research and development, PlasmaBlade prototypes are tested on tissue models in a laboratory environment. To facilitate control and automation of performance testing, Medtronic Advanced Energy tasked the team with developing a test simulator for PlasmaBlade devices.

Detection of Waterborne Pathogens for the Developing World

won the Best of Session

Jennifer Batara, Anusha Ravikumar
Advisor: Unyoung (Ashley) Kim

One of the most prevalent issues in underdeveloped areas is the lack of access to clean water. Our microfluidic device, which utilizes a lysis chamber and an electrochemical DNA sensor, can provide a reliable, fast, and safe method for waterborne pathogen detection in underdeveloped areas.

eMBr Micropump

Albenis Curiel, Christopher Ledesma, Jose Marcial Portilla
Advisors: Unyoung (Ashley) Kim, Daniel Strickland, Abdie Tabrizi

An electrolysis driven micropump created using photolithographic techniques for biomedical applications. This novel micropump uses a platinum catalyst to allow for a fully enclosed cyclic driving mechanism.

A Microfluidic Device to Identify and Measure Amine Concentrations in Cancerborealis

Rian Draeger, Kira Kubota, Elizabeth Sugahara
Advisors: Unyoung (Ashley) Kim, Steven Suljak

The aim of our project is to fabricate a device that specifically measures the concentrations of dopamine, octopamine, and serotonin in the Cancer borealis hemolymph. Ultimately our analysis of amine concentrations in the Cancer borealis will be applied to how amine concentrations affect motor programming in humans.

Pathogen Detection by Two-Dimensional Paper Networks

Ian Nova, Samuel Pontrelli, Miller Bauer; Business students: Luis Carillo, Marc Nguyen, Kirtan Patel
Advisor: Unyoung (Ashley) Kim

The objective of our research is to develop an inexpensive, automated, rapid pathogen detection system without the use of electricity or cold storage. We plan to achieve this goal by using a two-dimensional paper network with specific base pair recognition.

Detection of Pathogens Using Electrochemical DNA Sensors for Resource-Limited Settings

Sarah Ghanbari, Nick Giustini
Advisor: Unyoung Kim

Development of a microfluidic diagnostic device capable of determining local water safety by incorporating a high-throughput concentrator and an electrochemical DNA sensor to rapidly concentrate, lyse, and detect the presence of pathogens in a given water sample without the need for expensive and bulky lab equipment.

Probing the Mechanical Properties of Muscle Stem Cells

won the Best of Session

Lauren Jauregui, Sandeep Kaur, Arille Jeriza Virrey
Advisors: James Grainger, Unyoung Kim

Stem cells replace missing proteins that are either absent or defective in muscle dystrophic diseases. Mechanical properties of cell culture substrates, in combination with surface chemistry, provide important biological cues affecting cell proliferation and differentiation. We will investigate the mechanical properties of the substrates with coherence to the regenerative cells.

Precise Optical Wand

Claire Dalton
Advisor: Unyoung (Ashley) Kim

The expected result of this project is the creation of a handheld device that applies a compound to the skin based on the quantification of skin color. This would solve the problem of imprecise application, increase patient compliance, and improve both hygiene and efficiency. Industry applications are cosmetic and medical.

Contact

Phone: 408-554-2760
Fax: 408-554-5474
E-mail: ukim@scu.edu

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