Speaker: Michael G. Mauk
Time: July 6 15:30-16:30, 2023
Venue: The second lecture hall of Conference Center, East Campus
Abstract:Recent pandemics and emerging infectious diseases underscore the need for more pervasive, low-cost, easy-to-use technologies for molecular diagnostics (nucleic acid based detection) of viral and bacterial pathogens in clinical specimens such as saliva, plasma, whole blood, and urine.Ideally, these devices should integrate sample preparation, processing, enzymatic amplification and detection in a streamlined, minimally instrumented format, with pre-loaded, dry-stored reagents, and provide an easy-to-interpret test result.This talk will discuss the development of such devices made by rapid prototyping (3D printing, laser machining), that utilize chemical heating, capillary flow and compressible pouches for flow actuation and control, plasma filtration, and the use of a smartphone for fluorescent or other optical detection, data processing and logging.
Biography: Michael G. Mauk is an Adjunct Professor and Researcher at the University of Pennsylvania, and an Assistant Professor and Lecturer at Drexel University (Electrical Engineering) and the Johns Hopkins University (Biotechnology). Mauk has a PhD in Applied Science (Electrical Engineering) from the University of Delaware, an MS in Microbiology (University of Florida), MS in Biochemistry (University of the Sciences in Philadelphia), an MS Biomedical Diagnostics (Arizona State University), an MS in Biotechnology (Johns Hopkins), an A.S. in Lasers and Optics (Camden County College), and a BChE (Chemical Engineering, University of Delaware). Mauk worked for 20 years as research Engineer at AstroPower, General Electric, and DuPont in semiconductor materials, optoelectronics, and sensors. He has close to 300 publications and 22 patents.Mauk has taught Colloids and Interface Science, Chemical Thermodynamics, and Digital Electronics courses in the BUCT SIE for the last five years.