Microfluidics for Hematology: Poised for the Second Revolution
April 23-24, 2018
Boston, MA, USA

Microfluidics for Hematology: Poised for the Second Revolution

Hematology is an area of medicine that deals with the physiology, pathology, etiology, diagnosis, treatment, prognosis and prevention of non-malignant and malignant blood diseases, including hemophilia, sickle-cell anemia, leukemia, lymphoma, etc. Despite the extremely complex lineage hierarchy of the hematopoietic system, the science underlying this area of clinical practice is arguably the most advanced compared to other areas of medicine due in part to several cornerstone technologies such as flow cytometry that revolutionized the whole field of hematology with the ability for high-throughput phenotyping and sorting of blood cells. Recently, the emergence of microfluidic systems with an incredible level of control over spatial, temporal, and biochemical parameters at the finest resolution is poised for a second revolution of hematology. As of today, microfluidics has enabled rapid separation and characterization of blood and hematopoietic cells at a much finer scale and a more informative level (e.g., an order of magnitude more parameters analyzer per cell), the modeling of the hematopoietic system such as the bone marrow niche to investigate the process of blood generation (hematopoiesis), the assay of blood cell functions and interaction with vasculature to study hematologic disorders, the utilization to expedite the development of new gene and cell therapies to treat hematologic diseases. The workshop will highlight recent advances in, but not limited to, these topics.

This workshop will bring basic biologist and clinicians in hematology and microfluidics engineers together to discuss the challenges, brainstorm the provocative questions, and foster the interaction between basic research, clinical application, and engineering.

The topics to be covered included, but not limited to:

• Microfluidic blood cell sorting
• Microfuidic systems for multiplex, multiparameter characterization of blood cells
• Mechanobiology of blood cells in health and disease
• Leukocyte migration and rolling assay
• Thrombosis assay and anti-coagulation drug test
• Blood-Endothelium interaction
• Hematopoietic stem cell fate control and differentiation
• Bone marrow niche modeling
• Diagnosis and treatment of hematologic malignancies
• Cell-based immunotherapy
• Liquid biopsy, circulating tumor cell, and cell-free DNA/RNA processing

The deadline to submit abstracts is December 22, 2017. Please see the attachment below for abstract instructions and visual guide.

Abstract Instructions

To submit an abstract, click on the submissions link at the top of the page and then "add new"

Deadline for submission: December 22, 2017
Notification of acceptance: January 22, 2018


Workshop Organizing Chairs:
Rong Fan, PhD
Associate Professor
Department of Biomedical Engineering
Yale University

Abraham Lee, PhD
William J. Link Professor
Department of Biomedical Engineering
University of California, Irvine

Chwee Teck Lim
Provost’s Chair Professor
Department of Biomedical Engineering
National University of Singapore