Luoran SHANG

Luoran Shang focuses on microfluidics and the associated applications in biomedical fields, including the fabrication of anisotropic functional materials. She works on the aforementioned aspects of microfluidics, including fluid dynamics, self-assembled structural color materials for multiplex bioassays, mucus adhesive microparticles for drug delivery, etc.

The most representative innovations of her research lie in two aspects. 

On one hand, through piezoelectric devices and microfluidic jetting, fluid vibrations of liquid flow can be induced in microfluidic channels. It can also be combined with polymerization kinetics to manufacture anisotropic polymer fibers. By adjusting the structural parameters and wettability feature of the fibers, flexible and versatile liquid directional transport has been achieved. Based on this system, polymer fibers with novel structural features can be generated and applied in directional liquid transportation.

On the other hand, based on microfluidic droplets, anisotropic microparticles are fabricated via shear-induced colloidal particles’ migration, jamming, and capillarity-induced confined assembly. By regulating the optical, mechanical properties, and biological effects of the microparticles, their applications in molecular diagnosis and drug delivery are well demonstrated.

Apart from these, she also explores some exciting areas including associative and segregative liquid-liquid phase separation via microfluidics. These systems are different from her previously studied water-oil systems (which generate droplets in microfluidic channels) or miscible water systems (which generate jets in microfluidic channels).

Therefore, Luoran’s team will investigate their fundamental fluidic dynamics in microfluidic channels, based on which they’ll try generating novel soft matter materials and extend their applications in biomedical fields including protocells, bioadhesives, intracellular delivery, etc.