Crystal Owens

Lab on a Lego: Building Research Tools out of Toys

ABSTRACT -- Microfluidics is not always known by name, but it is a widely utilized technology for handling fluid at small scales, used for instance in blood testing, drug production, chemical synthesis, and research in biology and chemistry. Typical methods to make the small (<< 1 mm) fluid-handling channels use photolithography or molding and are time-consuming and difficult, requiring monolithic, 2D designs and expensive infrastructure.

We demonstrate the construction of microfluidic systems based on pre-made modular units using toy LEGO bricks, well-known for their high quality, and discuss the obstacles and design choices to use these mechanically and dimensionally precise toys for research-level experiments. This fluid-carrying system is composed of individual fluid-handling and sensing functions, one or more per brick, assembled into a network to achieve an overarching function. In this way, a complex microfluidic system can be built the same way that you would build a LEGO castle - brick by brick. We describe the challenges to building a high-precision, reconfigurable microfluidic system that remains simple (and fun!) to use, and discuss our solution to generate reliable sealing between bricks using o-rings and sealing film (>99% sealing rate). We further demonstrate LEGO-fluidics with fundamental microfluidic functions of controlled water transport, measurement of concentration by optical absorbance, and generation of emulsions.

This platform can expand the use of microfluidics to allow researchers to spend time on science rather than fabrication when designing a microfluidic system. It can allow more complex and compact 3D microfluidic systems, as well as find easy access in the classroom for education and science outreach.

We will describe the challenges and design choices to use these mechanically and dimensionally precise toys for research-level experiments.

SPEAKER -- Crystal Owens is a PhD student in mechanical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology specializing in fluid mechanics, 3D printing, and composite materials, but her real background comes from extensive childhood experience using LEGO bricks and LEGO Bionicles! She is a National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) Fellow, and she is involved with various groups on MIT campus including the Graduate Association of Mechanical Engineers and the Society for Women Engineers. She holds a Bachelor's Degree (‘15) from Duke University also in mechanical engineering with a minor in math. While at Duke, her research work included studying acoustic assembly of microparticles, working as a microbiology intern, and studying plant development in response to light.

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