This course will take place right before the Nano Bio Tech Conference Montreux. Registration to the course DOES NOT include access to the conference!

Microfluidics devices and systems have become essential elements for modern biochemistry, bioanalytics and analytical chemistry. In particular, microfluidics represents the new platform for high-throughput experimentation and analysis. It is considered one of the most promising, but also divers, application areas of MST or MEMS. It is the aim of this course to present the technological state of the art in microfluidics to users from areas such as life sciences, (bio)chemistry, pharmacologyand biomedicine on the one hand, and on the other hand to make micromechanics and microfluidics engineers familiar with potential application areas and requirements.

The course addresses engineers and researchers from companies or institutes active in analytical chemistry, manufacturing of analytical and medical instruments, pharmaceutical sector and bio sciences or in the manufacturing processes of micro devices. Biochemists, analytical chemists that want an entry or update in the field of microfluidics.

• Introduction to fluid mechanics: the effect of downscaling
• Introduction in microtechnology for fabrication of microfluidic devices: silicon/glass/polymer technologies, patterning/etching/bonding/deposition techniques
• Labs-on-Chip (LOC) / Micro Total Analysis Systems
• Microfluidics platforms: droplet microfluidics, centrifugal microfluidics, paper microfluidics etc…
• "Omics" Applications: genomics/proteomics/ cell analysis
• Emerging fields, such as organ-on-a-chip
• Nanotechnology
• Commercialization aspects