Our research group is engaged in a broad range of activities in the general area of microfluidics and nanoscale science.
We are interested in ...
the development of microfluidic devices for analytical and bio-analytical applications
.
For more information : please click here
Please apply ONLY through the online ETH portal: https://apply.refline.ch/845721/5773/pub/1/index.html
March 2018
News
Nadia Vertti Quintero succesfully defended her PhD thesis. Congratulations Nadia!
Deborah Huber succesfully gave her PhD public presentation with title Micro Fluorescence in Situ Hybridization (ΜFISH) Using a Microfluidic Scanning Probe (MFP). Well done!
February 2018
News
Tianjin Yang succesfully gave her PhD public presentation with title "Optofluidic Systems for Controlled Chemical and Biological Experimentation" Congratulations Tianjin and good luck with the defense!
Afshin successfully gave his PhD public presentation, a prerequisite for his PhD defense… the first PhD public presentation in the deMello group!
Congratulations Afshin and good luck with the defense!
Oliver Dressler succesfully defended his PhD thesis. Congratulations Oliver!
January 2018
News
Simon Berger succesfully defended his PhD thesis. Congratulations Simon!
Tomasz Koprowski succesfully defended his PhD thesis. Congratulations Tomasz!
December 2017
Publication
Martina's paper on Microfluidic Formation of Proteinosomes is accepted in Chemical Communications!
November 2017
News
Our latest publication from Stavros and Anand in Chem is currently on ETH News: How an iconic photograph of an apple inspired an improved cellular analysis.
Afshin is awarded a “Travel Grant” from Swiss Society for Crystallography to present his work in EuroMOF 2017 & 5th MOF Young Investigators Symposium, Delft, The Netherlands.
Publication
Tianjin's paper on A High-Sensitivity, Integrated Absorbance and Fluorescence Detection Scheme for Probing Picoliter-Volume Droplets in Segmented Flows is published in Analytical Chemistry!
October 2017
News
The Analytical Scientist names Andrew as one of its Giants of Nano, recognizing the group's activities in microfluidics and nanoscale science.
Publication
Stavros and Anand's paper on High-Throughput Multi-parametric Imaging Flow Cytometry is published as the cover article in Chem!
News
Bartosz Koprowski succesfully defended his PhD thesis. Congratulations Baki!
Yun Ding succesfully defended his PhD thesis. Congratulations Yun!
Publications
Afshin's paper on Electrospraying of microfluidic encapsulated cells for the fabrication of cell-laden electrospun hybrid tissue constructs is accepted by Acta Biomaterialia.
Gregor's paper on Elasto-inertial focusing of mammalian cells and bacteria using low molecular, low viscosity PEO solutions is accepted by Analytical Chemistry.
September 2017
Publications
Richard and David publish their paper on ultra-fast label-free detection in picoliter & femtoliter droplets in Lab on a Chip.
Richard's paper on using microfluidic reactors to probe the synthesis of formamidinium lead halide perovskite nanocrystals is accepted by Chemisty of Materials.
June 2017
News
Andrew gives an invited lecture at the 2017 Nobel Symposium in Microfluidics in Sweden.
May 2017
News
Professor Akinori Kuzuya from the Department of Chemistry and Materials Engineering at Kansai University joins our group as a Visiting Professor. Professor Kuzuya is internationally recognized for his research in the fields of DNA nanotechnology, and supramolecular chemistry.
Welcome Aki!
April 2017
News
Congratulations to Nadia and Deborah for winning the 2017 Chemistry Travel Award of the Swiss Academy of Sciences (SCNAT) and the Swiss Chemical Society (SCS). An article will be published in CHIMIA.
February 2017
Publication
Our perspective article with Daniel Chiu (Washington), Dino Di Carlo (UCLA), Carl Hansen (UBC) and Pat Doyle (MIT) entitled "Small but Perfectly Formed? Successes, Challenges, and Opportunities for Microfluidics in the Chemical and Biological Sciences" is now out in Chem.
January 2017
News
This year's group retreat took place in a very cold and snowy Klosters and for the first time did not involve any injuries or hospital visits...
Publication
Richard's article 'A Photothermal Spectrometer for Fast and Background-Free Detection of Individual Nanoparticles in Flow' has been accepted for publication as the cover article in Analytical Chemistry.
News
David Müller succesfully defended his PhD thesis. Congratulations David!
December 2016
News
Richard has succesfully defended his PhD thesis. Congratulations Richard!
November 2016
News
Ioannis has been awarded an Early Postdoc Mobility Fellowship from the SNSF. He will take this to Klavs Jensen's group at MIT in 2017. Many congratulations Ioannis!
Publication
Jae-Won's paper entitled, Streptavidin-triggered signal amplified fluorescence polarization for analysis of DNA–protein interactions has been published as the cover article in the Analyst.
October 2016
News
Ardita Kilaj, who is currently a PhD student at the University of Basel, has been awarded the ETH Medal Award 2016 for her master's thesis entitled "In-line characterization of nucleation and growth kinetics of PbS quantum dots using droplet-based microfluidics". Congratulations Ardita!
News
Claire leaves the group to take up her new position at Agroscope in Zurich.
Many Congratulations Claire...We will miss you!
August 2016
News
Claire has been awarded a prestigious Ambizione Grant from the SNSF. Her fellowship, entitled "Microbiome-on-a-Chip: New frontiers in Plant-Microbiota Research" , will be held at Agroscope in Zurich.
Many Congratulations Claire!
July 2016
Publication
Josep's article 'Freezing the Nonclassical Crystal Growth of a Coordination Polymer Using Controlled Dynamic Gradients' has been accepted for publication in Advanced Materials.
June 2016
Publication
Ioannis's article 'Scalable production of CuInS2/ZnS quantum dots in a two-step droplet-based microfluidic platform' has been accepted for publication in Journal of Materials Chemistry C.
News
Ioannis's recent article published in Nano Letters was selected for a highlight in Swiss Science Concentrates of Chimia.
May 2016
Publication
Richard's article entitled "Kinetics of nanocrystal synthesis in a microfluidic reactor: theory and experiment" has been accepted for publication in Reaction Chemistry & Engineering as the cover article.
News
Ioannis receives the QD2016 travel award for attending the 9th International Conference of Quantum Dots, Jeju, Korea.
April 2016
News
Simon receive the Journal of Cell Science Travelling Fellowship for joining the group of Prof. Kleckner at Harvard University as an exchange student. Congratulations!
News
Yun is one of the selected PhD students for the 2016 Chemistry Travel Award. Congratulations!
March 2016
News
Anand has succesfully defended his thesis entitled "Inertial Microfluidics: Self Assembly of Particles & Applications in Flow Cytometry"!
News
Ioannis's article entitled "Synthesis of Cesium Lead Halide Perovskite Nanocrystals in a Droplet-Based Microfluidic Platform: Fast Parametric Space Mapping" is in the Top-20 most downloaded Nano Letters articles of the month.
February 2016
Publication
Yun's article entitled "Microfluidic-Based Droplet and Cell Manipulations Using Artificial Bacterial Flagella" has been accepted for publication in Micromachines.
Publication
Xiaobao's article entitled "Enhanced versatility of fluid control on centrifugal microfluidic platforms using two degrees of freedom" has been accepted for publication in Lab on a Chip.
News
Ioannis's recent article for the synthesis of all-inorganic perovskites was recently highlighted by Nanoletters.
Publication
Ioannis's article entitled "Synthesis of Cesium Lead Halide Perovskite Nanocrystals in a Droplet-Based Microfluidic Platform: Fast Parametric Space Mapping" has been accepted for publication in NanoLetters.
January 2016
News
Ioannis has succesfully defended his thesis entitled "Novel Microfluidic Platforms for the Programmable Synthesis of Semiconductor Nanocrystals"!
October 2015
News
Andrew is named on the "2015 Analytical Power List", honouring the 100 most influential people in the world of analytical science.
Publication
Chiara's article entitled "Controllable Generation and Encapsulation of Alginate Fibers Using Droplet-Based Microfluidics" has been accepted for publication on Lab on a Chip Journal.
September 2015
Publication
Flora's review entitled 'A Microfluidic Toolbox for Cell Fusion' is published in the Journal of Chemical Technology and Biotechnology.
June 2015
Publication
Dirk's article entitled 'In vitro gene expression within membrane-free coacervate protocells' is published in Chemical Communications.
News
Ioannis is one of the selected PhD students for the 2015 Chemistry Travel Award. The award is sponsored by the «Platform Chemistry» of the SCNAT, the Swiss Chemical Society (SCS) and the Swiss Society for Food and Environmental Chemistry (SSFEC)
May 2015
Publication
Dirk's article entitled 'Microfluidic Formation of Membrane-Free Aqueous Coacervate Droplets in Water' is published in Angewandte Chemie International Edition
Publication
Ioannis's article entitled 'Millisecond-Timescale Monitoring of PbS Nanoparticle Nucleation and Growth Using Droplet-Based Microfluidics' is published in Small.
Publication
Oliver's article entitled 'Continuous and low error-rate passive synchronization of pre-formed droplets' is published in RSC Advances.
Publication
Katherine's article entitled "A microfluidic platform for the rapid determination of distribution coefficients by gravity assisted droplet-based liquid-liquid extraction" has been accepted for publication in Analytical Chemistry.
Group Activities
Congratulations to the deMello μflu-Leaders team that participated in the SOLA 2015 Relay and ranked 504 over 909!
April 2015
Publication
David's article entitled "High-Throughput, Quantitative Enzyme Kinetic Analysis in Microdroplets using Stroboscopic Epifluorescence Imaging" is published in Analytical Chemistry.
Publication
Katherine's article entitled "Droplet confinement and leakage: causes, underlying effects and amelioration strategies" has been accepted for publication in Biomicrofluidics.
March 2015
Publication
Daniele's article entitled 'Investigating the fluid dynamics of rapid processes within microfluidic devices using bright-field microscopy' is published in Lab on a Chip.
February 2015
Publication
Chiara's article entitled "Microfluidic Generation of PEG-b-PLA Polymersomes Containing Alginate-based Core Hydrogel." has been accepted for publication in Biomicrofluidics.
Publication
Richard's and Ioannis's review article 'Online detection and automation methods in microfluidic nanomaterial synthesis' is published in Current Opinion in Chemical Engineering.
January 2015
News
Dirk has succesfully defended his thesis entitled "Microfluidic Tools and Techniques for Artificial Cell Engineering"... the first deMello Group PhD at ETH...Congratulations Dirk!
Publication
Yun's paper 'The “V-junction”: a novel structure for high-speed generation of bespoke droplet flows' has been highlighted on the front cover of Analyst.
November 2014
Media Mention
Inspiration Discovery Excitement:
Interview with Tomasz about his role in the 2014 JALA & JBS Art of Science Contest.
October 2014
Publication
Yun's paper 'The “V-junction”: a novel structure for high-speed generation of bespoke droplet flows' is published in Analyst.
"Tuesday 30th September
I learnt today of the untimely passing of our good friend and collaborator Professor Soo-Ik Chang (Chungbuk National University). Soo-Ik was scientist of the highest calibre, an inspiring teacher and mentor and most importantly a wonderful human being. His influence, enthusiasm and kindness will be sorely missed by all those that knew him, and my thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends at this distressing time. Rest in peace my friend…
Andrew “
September 2014
Publication
Chiara's and Simon's paper 'A 3D-printed microcapillary assembly for facile double emulsion generation' is published in Lab on a Chip.
August 2014
News
Ioannis's and Richard's review article 'Nanocrystal synthesis in microfluidic reactors: where next?' was selected as Lab on a Chip top 10%.
Publication
Claire's paper 'Probing bacterial-fungal interactions at the single cell level' is published in Integrative Biology.
Publication
Richard's paper 'Fast and Reliable Metamodeling of Complex Reaction Spaces Using Universal Kriging' is published in The Journal of Physical Chemistry C.
June 2014
Publication
Ioannis's and Richard's review article 'Nanocrystal synthesis in microfluidic reactors: where next?' is published in Lab on a Chip.
New Group Member
Alexandra Yashina joins the group as a Postdoctoral Researcher after completing her PhD thesis at Imperial College.
April 2014
Publication
Ioannis's paper 'Facile Droplet-based Microfluidic Synthesis of Monodisperse IV-VI Semiconductor Nanocrystals with Coupled In-Line NIR Fluorescence Detection' is published in Chemistry of Materials.
March 2014
New Group Member
Gemma Pham joins the group as a Doctoral Student.
February 2014
Cover
Oliver's review article 'Droplet-Based Microfluidics: Enabling Impact on Drug Discovery' was selected to be featured on the front cover of the April 2014 issue of JBS.
Award
Tomasz is the grand prize winner of the 2014 JALA & JBS Art of Science Contest with his image "Tree of Life".
January 2014
Publication
Simon's paper 'Continuous Suspension of Lipids in Oil by the Selective Removal of Chloroform via Microfluidic Membrane Separation' is published in Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research.
New Group Member
Tianjin Yang joins the group as a Doctoral Student after completing her Research Project in our laboratory.
November 2013
Publication
Oliver's review article "Droplet-Based Microfluidics Enabling Impact on Drug Discovery" in published in Journal of Biomolecular Screening.
Publication
Dirk's paper 'A chip-to-world connector with a built-in reservoir for simple small-volume sample injection' is published in Lab on a Chip.
New Group Member
Flora Wing Yin Chiu joins the group as a Doctoral Student after getting her Master's degree at Imperial College London.
New Group Member
Justina Rutkauskaite joins the group as a Doctoral Student.
October 2013
Publication
Katherine's review article The past, present and potential for microfluidic reactor technology in chemical synthesis is published in Nature Chemistry.
September 2013
Publication
Xize's paper Droplet-Interfaced Microchip and Capillary Electrophoretic Separations is published in Analytical Chemistry.
New Group Members
David Hess, Laura Piveteau, Felix Eltes, Titian Steiger and Alain Jeanrenaud started their Master and Semester Thesis in our lab.
Conference Proceedings
Ioannis's paper accepted for the 4th Conference on Frontiers of Organic Synthesis Technology (FROST4) in Budapest/Hungary.
MICROFLUIDIC SYNTHESIS AND IN-LINE ANALYSIS OF LEAD SULFIDE QUANTUM DOTS
I. Lignos, G. Etienne, S. Stavrakis, L. Protesescu, M. Kovalenko, A. J. deMello
New Group Member
Chiara Martino joins the group as a Postdoctoral Researcher after completing her PhD Thesis at The University of Glasgow.
New Group Member
Nadia Vertti Quintero joins the group as a Doctoral Student after getting her Master's degree at EPFL.
August 2013
Conference Proceedings
Afshin's paper accepted for an oral presentation at COMSOL Conference Rotterdam 2013.
'A COMSOL Model of Droplet Formation at a Flow Focusing Device'
A. Abrishamkar, A. S. Rane, K. S. Elvira, R. C. R. Wootton, T. Sainio, A. J. deMello
Publication
Droplet-Based Microfluidic Platform for High-Throughput, MultiParameter Screening of Photosensitizer Activity.
Soongwon Cho et al, Anal. Chem., Article ASAP
Conference Proceedings
Yun's paper accepted for MicroTAS 2013
A HIGH THROUGHPUT DROPLET-BASED MICROFLUIDIC BARCODE GENERATOR
Y. Ding, S. Stavrakis, X. Casadevall i Solvas, and A. J. deMello
Ioannis's paper accepted for MicroTAS 2013
GAS-LIQUID MICROFLUIDIC REACTORS FOR THE OXIDATIVE HOMOCOUPLING OF PHENYLACETYLENE
I. G. Lignos, K. S. Elvira, R. C. R. Wootton and A. J. deMello
Anand's paper accepted for MicroTAS 2013
PARTICLE ORDERING USING DEAN FORCE-BASED INERTIAL MICROFLUIDICS
A. S. Rane, X. Casadevall i Solvas and A. J. deMello
New Group Member
Tohid Pirbodaghi joins the group as a Postdoctoral Researcher
New Group Member
Tianjin Yang joins the group as a Research Assistant after completing her Master's Thesis in the laboratory of Prof. Morbidelli at ETH Zurich.
June 2013
New Group Member
Simon Berger joins the group as a PhD student after completing his Master's Thesis in our lab.
May 2013
Publication
Fiona and Xize's paper A Nano LC-MALDI Mass Spectrometry Droplet Interface for the Analysis of Complex Protein Samples is published in PLoS ONE.
April 2013
Lecture
Andrew gives the Evening Lecture at the Trends for Microanalytical Systems and Chip-based Bioanalysis meeting in Senftenberg, Germany.
New Group Member
Richard Maceiczyk joins the group as a PhD student after completing his Master's Thesis in the laboratory of Prof. Kenichiro Itami at Nagoya University (Japan).
March 2013
New Group Member
Gianluca Etienne joins the group to carry out his semester project.
New Group Member
Afshin Abrishamkar joins the group to carry out his master thesis.
New Group Member
Oliver Dressler joins the group as a PhD student after completing his Master's Thesis in our lab.
February 2013
New group member
David Hess joins the group to carry out his master thesis.
New group members
Aaron Debon and Michael Herger join the group to carry out their undegraduate thesis.
January 2013
Publication
Dirk's paper Microfluidic methods for forming liposomes is published in Lab on a Chip. Article.
Laboratory
Our new cleanroom is now operational and we hope that we will soon be producing homemade microfluidic devices.
Publication
Katherine's paper Through-Wall Mass Transport as a Modality for Safe Generation of Singlet Oxygen in Continuous Flows is published in ACS Sustainable Chemistry. Article.
December 2012
Media Mention
Our droplet-based microfluidic work is highlighted by the Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening 2013 Meeting in Orlando. Article
New group member
Daniele Vigolo joins the group after completing his postdoctoral research with Professor Howard Stone in the Complex Fluids Group at Princeton University.
November 2012
Award
Andrew has been named as the 2012 recipient of the Pioneers of Miniaturisation Lectureship. The Lectureship recognises outstanding achievements and significant contributions to the understanding and advancement of micro- and nano-scale science. Press Release.
October 2012
Media Mention
Mikehide's paper Non-emissive plastic colour filters for fluorescence detection, Lab Chip, 2012,12, 4313-4320 named in Lab on a Chip Top 10%.
Media Mention
“Micro- and nanofluidic systems for high-throughput biological screening” published in Drug Discovery Today (14, 2009, 134-146) ranked in the top 10 articles published in the journal between 2009 and 2010.
September 2012
New group member
Yun Ding joins the group after completing his Master's Thesis with Professor Bradley Nelson in the Institute of Robotics and Intelligent Systems at ETH Zürich.
July 2012
Thesis Defence
Alexandra Yashina successfully defends her thesis entitled "Droplet-Based Microfluidics for the Study of Calcium Carbonate Crystallisation"
March 2012
Publication
Continuous and Segmented Flow Microfluidics: Applications in High-throughput Chemistry and Biology
C. E. Stanley et al, Chimia, 2012, 66, 88.
February 2012
Droplet Dispensing in Digital Microfluidic Devices: Assessment of Long Term Reproducibility
K. Elvira et al, Biomicrofluidics, 2012, in press
January 2012
Publication:
Calcium Carbonate Polymorph Control using Droplet-Based Microfluidics
A. Yashina et al, Biomicrofluidics, 2012, in press
Media Mention:
Molecular Vision highlighted in Wired Magazine's "25 Big Ideas for 2012" (January 2012 issue)
Publication:
Direct synthesis of dextran-coated superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles in a capillary-based droplet reactor, Journal of Materials Chemistry, DOI: 10.1039/c2jm30257h
MICRO FLUORESCENCE IN SITU HYBRIDIZATION (μFISH) USING A MICROFLUIDIC SCANNING PROBE (MFP)