Biomedical Engineering

The Biomedical Engineering program at CSB brings together four different labs (Lee, Im, Castro and Weissleder) interested in medical applications of next generations technologies. Members of the Program meet weekly to discuss the latest research, plan future experiments, review the literature and interact with other groups. Some of the innovative technologies developed to date are shown below.

Miniaturized NMR Systems

Applying microfabrications and microelectronics, we have miniaturized the entire NMR system into portable device.
PMID: 23835814, 18607350

Clinical DMR (diagnostic magnetic resonance)

This third generation DMR system automatically calibrates measurement settings, and features a user-friendly interface.
PMID: 21346169, 21547317

New types of magnetic nanoparticles

Different types of magnetic nanoparticles are synthesized to improve the sensitivity of magnetic detection (figure: a cluster of MnFe2O4 particles encased in a silica shell).
PMID: 21953810, 21495138, 20859943, 19620715

Microfluidic chip for exosome analysis

This chip integrates pneumatic valves, membrance filters, and a microcoil. Exosomes are magnetically labeled on chip, and detected by NMR.
PMID: 23142818


Microfiltration device for exosome collection

The device directly filters whole bloods and collects extracellular vesicles. The filter sets are clamped by a pair of ring magnets.
PMID: 24295203


Nanoplasmonic exosome (nPLEX) sensor

The sensor contains nanohole arrays that sustain surface plasmon resonance. It detect exosomes in a label-free manner.
PMID: 24752081

Microfluidic cell sorter

Based on size separation, this device enriches CTCs from unprocessed whole bloods, and allows for on-chip culture and molecular profiling.
PMID: 23184773

Single cell capture system

The chip performs immunomagnetic sorting and size-based cell capture, to capture target cells and then perform molecular analyses on these cells.
PMID: 24404070, 24297935

Microfluidic chip for bacterial detection

This fluidic cartridge is used to detect and classify bacterial strains. PCR chambers, magnetic labeling channels and an NMR probe are integrated.
PMID: 23644570, 23612293

Self-assembled magnets

The device creates strong magnetic field gradients using the self-assembly of micrometer- sized permanent magnets.
PMID: 24404070, 20949198

MicroHall detector for magnetocytometry

Using micrometer-scale Hall sensors, the system detects magnetic moments of cells that are immunolabeled with magnetic nanoparticles.
PMID: 23495188, 22764208

Recent Publications

• Batool SM, Hsia T, Beecroft A, Lewis B, Ekanayake E, Rosenfeld Y, Escobedo AK, Gamblin AS, Rawal S, Cote RJ, Watson M, Wong DTW, Patel AA, Skog J, Papadopoulos N, Bettegowda C, Castro CM, Lee H, Srivastava S, Carter BS, Balaj L Extrinsic and intrinsic preanalytical variables affecting liquid biopsy in cancer. Cell Rep Med. 2023;:101196 - PMID: 37725979 - DOI: 10.1016/j.xcrm.2023.101196

• Batool SM, Yekula A, Khanna P, Hsia T, Gamblin AS, Ekanayake E, Escobedo AK, You DG, Castro CM, Im H, Kilic T, Garlin MA, Skog J, Dinulescu DM, Dudley J, Agrawal N, Cheng J, Abtin F, Aberle DR, Chia D, Elashoff D, Grognan T, Krysan K, Oh SS, Strom C, Tu M, Wei F, Xian RR, Skates SJ, Zhang DY, Trinh T, Watson M, Aft R, Rawal S, Agarwal A, Kesmodel SB, Yang C, Shen C, Hochberg FH, Wong DTW, Patel AA, Papadopoulos N, Bettegowda C, Cote RJ, Srivastava S, Lee H, Carter BS, Balaj L The Liquid Biopsy Consortium: Challenges and opportunities for early cancer detection and monitoring. Cell Rep Med. 2023;:101198 - PMID: 37716353 - DOI: 10.1016/j.xcrm.2023.101198

• Jo A, Green A, Medina JE, Iyer S, Ohman AW, McCarthy ET, Reinhardt F, Gerton T, Demehin D, Mishra R, Kolin DL, Zheng H, Cheon J, Crum CP, Weinberg RA, Rueda BR, Castro CM, Dinulescu DM, Lee H Inaugurating High-Throughput Profiling of Extracellular Vesicles for Earlier Ovarian Cancer Detection. Adv Sci (Weinh). 2023;10(27):e2301930 - PMID: 37485618 - DOI: 10.1002/advs.202301930

• Hsia T, You DG, Politis MG, Batool SM, Ekanayake E, Lee H, Carter BS, Balaj L Rigorous Comparison of Extracellular Vesicle Processing to Enhance Downstream Analysis for Glioblastoma Characterization. Adv Biol (Weinh). 2023;:e2300233 - PMID: 37670402 - DOI: 10.1002/adbi.202300233

• More publications ...

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