Por Vania Silverio (INESC Microsistemas e Nanotecnologias, IST).

In this talk,  we will explore the ability to manipulate and detect magnetic nanoparticles (MNP) at chip level, and  how  it  is  revolutionizing  integrated  miniaturized  laboratories.  The  choice  of  magnetoresistive  (MR)  sensors  results  from  their  outstanding  achievements  in  many  areas,  from  reading  magnetic  bits  for  information  storage  (magnetic  hard  disk  recording)  to nanoparticle  detection  in  biomedical  platforms  or  neuronal synaptic activity measurements in neurosciences. Irrespective of the application, the integration of MR sensors and MNP offers quantitative and qualitative functionality to biosensing (e.g. comparing to optical or chemical methods). Moreover, magnetic and electromagnetic actuation are becoming extremely attractive components to precisely transport, mix, manipulate, and concentrate (sort, separate, purify, and detect  biomolecules)  MNP  for  binding  and  analysis.  The  ability  to  match  these  distinct  technologies  is  a  growing  and  not  much  explored  route  to  provide  ultra-compact  heterogeneous  integration  of  hybrid  systems  within  multifunctional  chips.  However,  the  challenges  of  handling  liquids  and  MNP  over  a  chip  combine  with  those  for  miniaturization  of  microelectronics.  When  these  are  overcome,  the  result  is  an  integrated  microfluidic  system  with  added  capabilities,  able  to  answer  to demands  in  biomedicine  and drug delivery.

Short bio: Vania Silverio (PhD in Mechanical Engineering, Tecnico, ULisboa and Licenciatura, 5 years, in Technological Chemistry, FCUL, ULisboa) is Assistant Researcher at INESC Microsistemas e Nanotecnologias (www.inesc-mn.pt), currently involved in scientifically innovative and challenging projects combining nanotechnology with simulation tools for the design, fabrication, integration and test of Microfluidic Platforms, Lab-On-Chip and Organ-on-Chip. For her work, she was nominated as Expert for the definition of Standards and Processes for Microfluidics  at ISO/TC48/WG3 and CEN/TC 332/WG7. Silvério combines her research with service providing and advanced training, teaching and theses supervision at Master and PhD level at Instituto Superior Técnico, ULisboa, where she is an Invited Assistant Professor. She is member of the SPF (Portuguese Physical Society), MFA (The Microfluidics Association), EUROoCS (European Organ-on-Chip Society), IEEE Society USA, EPS (European Physical Society), and IOP (Institute of Physics).