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April 4, 2005 Vol. 76, no.
11S
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| LAB-ON-A-CHIP:
BioE Ph.D. students Nate Beyor and Erik Douglas, along with two
other teammates, won a fellowship to study whether lab-on-a-chip
devices could help to reduce the spread of invasive marine species
across the world's oceans.
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Bioengineers
immersed in the shipping industry fight against marine invasive species
Last fall, BioE Ph.D. students
and lab colleagues Nate Beyor, Stephanie Yeung, and Erik Douglas were
looking for research projects they could submit to Berkeley's Management
of Technology International Research Fellowship Program. Beyor remembered
a conversation he'd had with a marine engineer who told him about a
problem considered one of the biggest threats to the world's oceans:
When a ship docks at a port and unloads its cargo, the cargo hold empties.
With nothing to weigh it down, a ship becomes unstable. To correct the
problem, ships are built with ballast tanks around the hold. The tanks
pump in water from the local bay. Now the ship is stable again. At the
next port, the ship takes in cargo and discharges water from the previous
port. With the water go microscopic marine species
that invade local populations and alter ecological systems.
There are human consequences, too. According to information from the
Global Ballast Management Programme, "In the Black Sea, the filter-feeding
North American jellyfish Mnemiopsis leidyi has depleted native plankton
stocks to such an extent that it has contributed to the collapse of
entire Black Sea commercial fisheries."
As a stop-gap measure, ships are asked to re-ballast at sea, that is,
empty the ballast tanks of the water they have carried from the previous
port and take on ocean water. Because re-ballasting may not remove all
the microscopic organisms, ships need to assess whether there are residual
organisms. Current analysis methods are inadequate, said the marine
engineer, costing shipping companies time and money.
Beyor relayed the problem to Yeung and Douglas. He and Douglas had been
working on lab-on-a-chip devices, which are microchips applied as biological
testing devices, often for medical applications. The chips do the same
thing as full-scale laboratory equipment but are much smaller, faster
to test samples, and have the potential to be cheaper. Why not use lab-on-a-chip
devices to help a developing country like China - home to two of the
world's three largest ports - detect invasives? Plus, Yeung speaks Chinese.
The three teamed up with Julien Decot from the Haas School of Business.
They submitted a proposal, and earlier this semester, won an $18,000
fellowship to conduct a feasibility study.
"We're really happy," says Beyor. "It will help broaden our experience
with lab-on-a-chip devices beyond medical applications."
In June, the team will spend three weeks in China talking to researchers
and Global Ballast Management Programme agencies about using the technology.
They will also assess the market potential for the devices and spend
the a few months evaluating the data. Then, they will present the results
at the Bridging the Divide 2006 Conference.
"It's been an eye-opening experience so far," says Douglas. "Certainly
it's a good way to explore the cargo industry."
This year's "Bridging the Divide" Conference, from April 21-23, will
focus on "Technology, Innovation and Learning in Developing Economies."
It's co-hosted by the College of Engineering. Don't miss this opportunity
for discussion and networking across many fields, with an important
common goal. This is a joint conference between the United Nations Industrial
Development Organization (UNIDO) and Berkeley. To register (student
discounts available!) and for more information, go to http://bridge.berkeley.edu/.
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