contact@elveflow.com+33(0).184.163.807+1(414)-406-4343 Elveflow is an Elvesys brand, an international microfluidics innovation center with high level researchers dedicated to microfluidics and organ-on-a-chip.
What can you achieve with microfluidics? What are the practical applications of microfluidics to a field of research, and how could microfluidics help your research career?
We asked our own Elveflow research teams for you. Our Microfluidics Careers pages give you a no frills, realistic idea of the wide variety of projects that can benefit from microfluidics.
Sehrish Iftikhar PhD is working on the MAHT-FunSST project, which has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 MSCA-IF under grant agreement No 843162.
My project is an amalgam of diverse fields spanning plant pathology, food production, mycology, fungicide screening, microfluidics, agriculture, and food security. Plant pathogenic fungi destroy a third of all food crops annually, causing economic loss and impacting global poverty. Managing plant diseases is an essential component of production for most crops to reduce their economic impact on yield and quality. Several fungicides are sprayed to control these diseases, to increase productivity of a crop, and to improve the storage life of harvested crop. Loss of fungicides through resistance is a problem that affects crop yield and food production. Conventional techniques to screen fungicides are time taking and laborious.
Considering the importance of standard high throughput screening (HTS) methods for fungicide and antimicrobial sensitivity testing, my aim is to develop a microfluidic platform for large-scale, automated antifungal screening and sensitivity studies. One of the most interesting things about my project is to see the single encapsulated spore of fungi growing inside a droplet and observing the dynamic behavior of many spores.
“One of the most interesting things about my project is to see the single encapsulated spore of fungi growing inside a droplet and observing the dynamic behavior of many spores.”
I have been looking for solutions to perform rapid and high throughput screening of fungicides. During my M.Sc. and Ph.D., I have been extensively working with antifungal agents and fungicides. I know the huge amount of lab work required to screen the antifungal agents which is arduous and very time consuming.
In July 2018, I received an email for MSCA IF application and found the opportunity to apply with Elvesys. Then I started to look into the details and applications of microfluidics in Plant Pathology. Before that, I was totally unfamiliar with the field of microfluidics but once I started to look into details, it was super-interesting and fascinating in addition to its various advantages (low reagent consumption, manipulation of cell number and density, monitoring of a high spatial and temporal resolution). So that is how I discovered microfluidics. As I was already looking for the screening methods of antimicrobial agents, this opportunity allowed me to develop new tools for screening which are more efficient, less time consuming and cost effective.
Conventional screening methods are time consuming. Considering the importance of antifungal screening, a microfluidic chip has potential to yield a powerful tool for large-scale, rapid, and automated screening. I am trying to develop a novel lab-on-chip platform to allow fast screening of fungal pathogens which can help in timely control of diseases and reducing food loss. Miniaturization, automation, integration, high-throughput analysis, and replication in same device are some of the factors which would be impossible without microfluidics in fungicide screening. In addition, new insights into fungicide mode of action can be obtained by observing single conidia via enhanced dynamic control over the microenvironment such as providing nutrients and growth factors. The integration of simple, profoundly efficient and high throughput lab-on-chip model is the key benefit of a device-based system compared to conventional protocols.
“The device will minimize the cost of fungicide development and screening, thus reducing the economic burden in the EU as well as having large implications on improving the production of food globally.”
Fungicide and antimicrobial development and screening is stuck in an innovation gap, in which it incurs staggering expenses and takes many years to get a fungicide/antimicrobial to market. Presently, antifungal agents and fungicides are of paramount importance to ensure the crop production. Loss of sensitivity of fungal pathogens and excessive spraying results not only in high cost but can also cause more resistant pathogens to develop. Also, emerging fungal threats to plants challenge agriculture and ecosystem resilience.
The incorporation of an innovative spore-based high throughput screening (HTS) platform will set a novel standard to customize the fungicide screening techniques that are currently missing from existing in vitro models. So, there is a dire need to screen already available fungicides and to identify new antifungal scaffolds which requires long and laborious experimental work. A microfluidic-based antifungal screening platform can allow reproducible and high throughput screening at a relatively lower cost. The device will minimize the cost of fungicide development and screening, thus reducing the economic burden in the EU as well as having large implications on improving the production of food globally.
Precisely defined manufacturing parameters will offer opportunities for scale-up and commercialization to meet larger-scale agricultural demand, opening the door to innovative pre- and in-field screening of fungicides.
Do you already know what challenges in research you want to tackle next?
I have successfully encapsulated the single spore of the fungi and it is happily growing inside the droplet. Also, I am able to screen different concentrations of the fungicides.
The next challenge is to automatize the whole setup so that the users can “plug and play” with it. Also, I am considering to achieve long-term incubation such that fungicide efficacy can be assessed throughout the developmental process of spore. Although it sounds simple, imaging a large number of freely moving spores becomes a great technical challenge. The platform will result in reduced analysis time and switching from conventional bench-top to lab-on-a-chip for fungicides screening.
Curious about the MAHT-FunSST project and Sehrish’s work? Have a look at our project page about high throughput fungicide screening.
We would be glad to join your project to help you to develop a microfluidic system for your specific applications, and share our experience with project submission, innovative product development, and dissemination.
Email* Message Hi Elveflow researchers, can you help me? Newsletter subscription
We will answer within 24 hours
Noémi Thomazo, research project management | My Microfluidics Career
INNOVATION & SCIENCE COMMUNICATION What can you achieve with microfluidics? What are the practical applications of microfluidics to a field of research, and how could microfluidics help your career?
This microfluidic device creates a uniquely accurate method for replicating the actual tumor microenvironment and will be utilized to understand the drug response to the human body.
Soil microorganisms are highly unknown even to this day due to the lack of a proper platform that allows to culture and study them.
More physiologically relevant models will hopefully result in more realistic studies of disease progression and medicines.
MY MICROFLUIDICS CAREER - ORIGINS OF LIFE What can you achieve with microfluidics? What are the practical applications of microfluidics to a field of research, and how could microfluidics help your research career?
Drop us a line! We reply quickly, we move fast and we love collaborative scientific projects.
Get a quote
Name*
Email*
Message
Newsletter subscription
By filling in your info you accept that we use your data.
Collaborations
Need customer support?
Serial Number of your product
Support Type AdviceHardware SupportSoftware Support
Subject*
I hereby agree that Elveflow uses my personal data Newsletter subscription
How can we help you?
Message I hereby agree that Elveflow uses my personal data Newsletter subscription