Asst. Prof. Eric Lagally and PhD students Tony Yang and Eric Ouellet have created a fun way to teach younger students and the general public about microfluidics using Jell-O®
Microfluidics is about controlling the flow and reaction of a small amount of fluids within a tiny area. This inter-disciplinary field has spurred advances in physics, engineering, microtechnology and biotechnology with innovations such as lab-on-a-chip and DNA chips.
A paper by Yang, Ouellet and Lagally, recently published in the American Chemical Society’s Analytical Chemistry, outlines simple steps to teach how microfluidic chips can be fabricated in a classroom for about two dollars per jello chip.
“I’ve had more response to this than any other papers I’ve published,” says Lagally, who is jointly appointed at the Michael Smith Laboratories and Dept. of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Faculty of Applied Science.
“As far as we know, we’re the only ones in the world to have come up with a quick, safe and inexpensive way to demonstrate and teach the principles of microfluidics to young students and non-scientists.”
Yang, whose thesis explores chemical and biological engineering and microfluidics, explains that pouring jello into a mold is analogous to soft-lithography, which is the process typically used to make microfluidic chips out of elastomeric materials.
The main materials used to create the molds are foam plates, wooden coffee stir sticks, and double-sided tape. The coffee stir sticks are cut into different shapes and sizes depending on the purpose of the mold and then taped onto a foam plate using double-sided tape, creating a specific pattern.
The chips themselves are made by pouring a liquid mixture of jello and additional gelatin onto the molds and then leaving them to cure for two days in a refrigerator. The chips are then removed from the refrigerator, peeled from the molds, and placed in aluminum dishes for demonstrations.
“We produced three types of molds for the experiments described in our paper: a jello mold, a Y-channel mold, and a pH sensor mold,” explains Yang.
Using these, teachers can then demonstrate concepts such as pressure-driven flow, laminar flows and a jello lab-on-a-chip to detect whether solutions are basic or acidic.
“Just about any sort of web chemistry experiment at the bench top can be miniaturized so it can be under greater control via a lab on a chip,” says Lagally.
“Jello resonates with kids so this work serves as a bridge between young students and scientists” adds Yang. “As microfluidics continues to become an integral part of our daily lives, it’s important to get students excited about this research and also to get them thinking about possible careers in science.”
To read the Analytical Chemistry paper, visit: http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/ac902926x
Materials for making jello microfluidic chips
2 × 85 g boxes of lemon-flavored jello powder
1 pouch (7 g) of unflavoured gelatine such as Knox
2 beakers of 120mL of purified water for dissolving jello and gelatine
6″× 6″ foam plates, round
1 drinking straw, round
No-stick cooking spray
Several 7? wooden coffee stir sticks
Green food dye
Single and double-sided tape
6″× 5″ aluminum weighing pan
Scheme for producing jello chips using soft lithography.
A A negative mold is made with desired features.
B Liquid chip material is poured onto the mold.
C Mold with liquid material is cured.
D Solidified chip is peeled off and
E Placed on a rigid substrate for experiments.
