'Lab-on-a-chip highly applicable to sustainability' says professor

Research into the application of nanofluidics in environmental issues and sustainable energy. That is one of the new routes being taken by Prof. Albert van den Berg of the University of Twente's MESA+ Institute for Nanotechnology, who has just been appointed as a 'distinguished professor' of the university: a rare honour bringing with it extra funding for research and reduced managerial and teaching responsibilities.

"Of course my group is mainly known for its work on biomedical applications of lab-on-a-chip systems. Research into the 'nanopill' will continue at full strength, but during my sabbatical at Harvard and the MIT I saw new developments that I am also very keen to investigate further in Twente. As a distinguished professor I will now have the freedom to do that. The appointment represents a tremendous acknowledgement of our work."

"Examples I have in mind include desalinating water by using electrical tension to remove the ions from the water. That is already happening on a large scale, but can we improve the efficiency of the process with fluid channels on a microscopic or nano scale? And how can we use nanotubes and graphene for storing energy, for example? 'Environmental applications' are included in my teaching and research remit alongside biomedical applications for good reason. I will also be using a part of the Spinoza Prize for this purpose."

Nanopill

At the award of the Spinoza Prize in 2009, Prof. Van den Berg already focused attention on the 'nanopill' - a pill containing an entire laboratory for detecting bowel cancer at an early stage - that he aims to develop together with renowned oncologist Bob Pinedo. "I said at the time that we needed ten years for its development. We are currently making good progress. We can already bond DNA to nanofilaments to make measurements, for instance. But we also want to construct a miniscule pump inside the pill, and that is a considerable challenge."

Other 'lab-on-a-chip' systems that have been developed in Prof. Van den Berg's group are now almost ready to be brought onto the market. Spinoff company MediMate is currently carrying out practical tests on a device for measuring blood lithium levels among patients with a manic-depressive disorder. And another company, Blue4Green, is using a similar chip for the monitoring of milk fever in dairy herds. Prof. Van den Berg has high expectations of this development. "The tests show that by closely monitoring milk fever with the measurement system dairy farmers can save several hundred euros a year. Per cow!" Another spinoff, for a chip that tests male fertility, is already in preparation. "We can already count the number of sperm cells in a sample, and soon we will also be able to reliably measure their mobility."

Provided by University of Twente