Education
Postdoctoral Fellowship (Center for Engineering in Medicine),
Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, 1997-2000
Postdoctoral Fellowship (Chemistry, Electrical Engineering, and
Computer Science), Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1994-1997
PhD (surface science and nanotechnology), University of Barcelona, Spain, 1994
Visiting Scientist, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, 1990-1991
BS (physics), University of Barcelona, Spain, 1989
Research Interests
• BioMEMS
• Microfluidics & Soft lithography
• Cellular micropatterns & Cell-based microdevices
• Miniaturized cell culture technology
• Axon guidance
• Synaptogenesis
• Chemotaxis
• High-throughput single-cell analysis
Contact Information
Department of Bioengineering
University of Washington
Box 355061
William H. Foege Building, Room N310C
Phone: 206-685-2257
Fax: 206-543-6124
E-mail: afolch@u.washington.edu
Home Page: http://faculty.washington.edu/afolch/
Research Description
Our laboratory's mission is to develop miniature cell culture tools for quantitative neurobiology studies, with a focus on axon guidance and synaptogenesis. In particular, we apply micro- and nanotechnology to control the microfluidic environment and the underlying substrate of muscle and nerve cells. Microfabrication technology also allow us to address large numbers of single cells with sub-cellular resolution in order to obtain statistically-rich single-cell data. Towards that goal, we develop advanced general-purpose microfluidic technology (such as microvalves, combinatorial micromixers, and cell traps), single-cell nanoprobes (such as patch-clamp chips and nanofluidic delivery systems), and computer algorithms for high-throughput recognition of sub-cellular morphology.
Teaching Activities
Honors and Awards
Selected Publications
- Salmeron, M., Folch, A., Neubauer, G., Tomitori, M., and Ogletree, D. F. "Nanometer Scale Mechanical Properties of Au(111) Thin Films", Langmuir, 8: 2832 (1992).
- Salmeron, M., Neubauer, G., Folch, A., Tomitori, M., Ogletree, D. F., and Sautet, P. "Viscoelastic and Electrical Properties of Self-Assembled Monolayers on Au(111) Thin-Films", Langmuir, 9: 3600 (1993).
- Folch, A., Tejada, J., Peters, C. H., and Wrighton, M. S. "Electron Beam Deposition of Gold Nanostructures in a Reactive Environment", Applied Physics Letters, 66: 2080 (1994).
- Folch, A., Servat, J., Esteve, J., Tejada, J., and Seco, M. "High-vacuum vs. 'Environmental' Electron Beam Deposition", Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology B, 14: 2609 (1994).
- Folch, A., Gorostiza, P., Servat, J., Tejada, J., and Sanz, F. "Enhanced Surface Atomic Step Motion Observed in Real Time After Nanoindentation of NaCl(100)", Surface Science, 380: 427 (1997).
- Folch, A., Wrighton, M. S., and Schmidt, M. A. "Microfabrication of Oxidation-Sharpened Silicon Tips on Silicon Nitride Cantilevers for Atomic Force Microscopy", Journal of Microelectromechanical Systems, 6: 303 (1997).
- Folch, A. and Toner, M. "Cellular Micropatterns on Biocompatible Materials", Biotechnology Progress, 14: 388 (1998).
- Folch, A. and Schmidt, M. A. "Wafer-Level In-Registry Microstamping", Journal of Microelectromechanical Systems, 8: 85 (1999).
- Folch, A., Ayon, A. A., Hurtado, O., Schmidt, M. A., and Toner, M. "Molding of Deep Polydimethylsiloxane Microstructures for Microfluidic and Biological Applications", Journal of Biomechanical Engineering, 121: 28 (1999).
- Ledezma, G., Folch, A., Bhatia, S. N., Balis, U. J., Yarmush, M. L., and Toner, M. "Numerical Model of Fluid Flow and Oxygen Transport in a Radial-Flow Microchannel Containing Hepatocytes", Journal of Biomechanical Engineering, 121: 58 (1999).
- Folch, A., Jo, B.-H., Hurtado, O., Beebe, D. J., M. A., and Toner, M. "Microfabricated Elastomeric Stencils for Micropatterning Cell Cultures", Journal of Biomedical Materials Research, 52: 346 (2000).
- Folch, A. and Toner, M. "Stacks of Microfabricated Structures as Scaffolds for Cell Culture and Tissue Engineering", Biomedical Microdevices, 2: 207 (2000).
- Folch, A. and Toner, M. "Microengineering of Cellular Interactions", Annual Reviews of Biomedical Engineering, 2: 227 (2000).
- Chen, C., Hirdes, D., and Folch, A. "Gray-Scale Photolithography Using Microfluidic Photomasks", Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences, 100:1499 (2003).
- Li, N., Tourovskaia, A., and Folch, A. "Biology on a Chip: Microfabrication in Cell Culture Studies", Critical Reviews in Biomedical Engineering 31: 423 (2003).
- Tourovskaia, A., Barber, T., Wickes, B., Hirdes, D., Grin, B., Castner, D. G., Healy, K. E., and Folch, A. Micropatterns of Chemisorbed Cell Adhesion-Repellent Films Using Oxygen Plasma Etching and Elastomeric Masks”, Langmuir 19: 4754 (2002).
- Neils, C. M., Tyree, Z., Finlayson, B., and Folch, A. “Combinatorial Mixing of Microfluidic Streams”, Lab On a Chip 4, 342 (2004).
- Hsu, C.-H., Chen, C., and Folch, A. “‘Microcanals’ for Micropipette Access to Single Cells in Microfluidic Environments”, Lab On a Chip 4, 420 (2004).
- Hoffman, J., Shao, J., Hsu, C.-H., and Folch, A. “Elastomeric Molds with Tunable Microtopography”, Advanced Materials (2004) 16, 2201.
- Tourovskaia, A., Figueroa-Masot, X., and Folch, A. “Differentiation-on-a-chip: A Microfluidic Platform For Long-Term Cell Culture Studies”, Lab On a Chip 5, 14 (2005).
- Hsu, C.-H. and Folch, A. “Microfluidic Devices with Tunable Microtopographies”, Applied Physics Letters 86, 023508 (2005).
- Kosar, T. F., Chen, C., Stucky, N., and Folch, A. “Arrays of Microfluidically-Addressable Nanoholes”, Journal of Biomedical Nanotechnology (2005), in press.
- Keenan, T. M., Hooker, A., Spiler, M. E., Li, N., Boggy, G. J., Vicini, P., and Folch, A. “Automated Identification of Axonal Growth Cones in Time-Lapse Image Sequences”, accepted for publication in Journal of Neurosience Methods (2005).
|
