Abstract:

Whole blood flow dynamics determine the tissue oxygenation levels, hence carry life-critical value in several pathological conditions. Despite the long history of research on blood, the state-of-the-art lacks the ability to determine hemorheological properties of blood in a clinical setting. For this purpose, we developed a method to determine flow dynamics of blood using an optical-based detection technique. The system uses a novel pumping mechanism to induce in-vivo like flow conditions in a microfluidic channel that requires only a drop of whole blood for analysis. The measurement is completed in three minutes using a handheld analyzer device and can determine hemorheological properties, which can be linked to diseases related to red blood cell anomalies. Unlike the systems that are based on experimental single cell investigation or computational flow dynamics, these results open the avenue for blood studies that capture the cell-cell interactions as well as cell-medium interactions as in the circulatory system.

Short Biography of the Speaker:

Dr. Caglar Elbuken received his B.Sc. degree from Bilkent University Electrical and Electronics Engineering in 2004 and his Ph.D. degree from University of Waterloo Mechanical Engineering in 2009. After a two-year post-doctoral position at University of Waterloo, Dr. Elbuken worked at Abbott Point-of-Care as a senior scientist in the R&D department. Since 2012, Dr. Elbuken is working as an assistant professor at Bilkent University National Nanotechnology Research Center. His research focuses on micro/nano systems, lab-on-a-chip systems, mechatronics and biomedical diagnostic technologies. He has co-authored over 40 refereed journal articles, 2 patents and devised several prototypes for point-of-care diagnostics.