Integration Technologies for Smart Catheters

Around 10% of the population will have to go through a catheterization procedure for the treatment of a cardiovascular disease at a certain stage of their lives. During such a procedure, smart catheters will be the "eyes and ears" of the surgeons, significantly improving the diagnosis and treatment. However, there have been very limited...

Miniature sensorized platform for engineered heart tissues

The high death toll of cardiovascular diseases worldwide and the lack of effective treatments for them are the main motivation for developing alternative and more efficient models for cardiac drug development and disease research. The missing link between current laboratory research on static in vitro and animal models and the clinical stage...

Microfabrication and microstructuring of hydrogel materials

Growing importance of hydrogels in various areas of human life has led to increasing need in controlling their properties, which is generally achieved by adjusting hydrogels shape and microstructure. Even though standard microfabrication and microstructuring techniques can be currently applied in hydrogel research, the variety of properties of...

Carbon nanotube based solutions for on-chip thermal management

The performances of microelectronic and optoelectronic devices are often severely limited by high temperatures and insufficient heat management. Therefore, when considering device fabrication and packaging, it is important to select materials based on their thermal performance. The increasing demand for more integrated functionality and...

Bacterial Societies: Cooperation, Colonization, and Competition in Micro-Scale Ecosystems

In this thesis, I describe experiments aimed at understanding bacterial population dynamics in ecosystems that are spatially structured at the micro-scale. We combine microfabrication and microfluidics to create synthetic ecosystems that have a complex yet well-defined geometry and chemical composition. Bacteria that inhabit such ecosystems can...

Developing and Analysing sub-10 µm Fluidic Systems with Integrated Electrodes for Pumping and Sensing in Nanotechnology Applications

In this thesis, sub-10 µm fluidic systems with integrated electrodes for pumping and sensing in nanotechnology applications were developed and analyzed. This work contributes to the development of the scanning ion pipette (SIP), a tool to investigate surface changes on the nanometer scale induced by locally administering chemically or bio-active...