Bolognesi Lab
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News Archive – 2020
18.12.2020
Research Paper on Diffusiophoresis featured on News
Our latest research, published on Physical Review Letters, has been highlighted on The Engineer and the Loughborough University News Bulletin.
This research shows how water streams with a slightly different salinity enable the controlled trapping and release of small (sub-micron) particles into and from dead-end cavities. The proposed new mechanism can unlock exciting opportunities for the exploitation of salt-driven transport of
bioparticles in living and artificial systems for drug delivery, synthetic biology and point-of-need diagnostics applications. Biological fluids are indeed populated by a large variety of particles, such as molecule aggregates, bioparticle nanocarriers and living cells. The controlled transport of such particles is not only a crucial function in biological systems, but it is also a key capability for several technological applications, ranging from drug delivery to diagnostics. However, the particle transport in dead-end regions, like cavities and pores – which are ubiquitous in both living and artificial systems – is a quite challenging task. This research solves this technological bottleneck by harvesting the chemical energy stored in salty water streams to drive particles in dead-end environments. On-demand particle accumulation, trapping and removal is achieved by simply tuning the water salinity. This mechanism could be exploited in the time-controlled sequential delivery of multiple drugs within dead-end pores or the pre-concentration and analysis of biological samples in small, portable diagnostic devices.
18.12.2020
Special Issue "Droplet Microfluidics: A Tool for Biology, Chemistry and Materials Engineering" – Deadline Extended
We are guest editing a Special Issue on MDPI Molecules!
Contributions to this issue may cover all aspects of droplet generation and manipulation in microfluidic systems ranging from fundamental aspects and modelling of droplet generation and manipulation to various applications in chemistry, biology and physics such as (but not limited to) chemical synthesis and micromixing within droplets, imaging, high-throughput screening, in vitro ompartmentalisation and digestion, single-cell encapsulation, production of nanoparticles and microparticles, synthesis of cell and tissue mimics and drug delivery systems.
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The new submission deadline is 30 April 2021. If you are interested to contribute a paper, contact us.
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More information on the special issue is available here.
22.11.2020
The group is attending the 73nd Annual APS DFD (Online) Meeting
Naval presents our latest research work on diffusiophoresis at the 73nd annual meeting of the American Physical Society (APS) Division of Fluid Dynamics from 22rd to 24th November 2020. This year the meeting is held online.
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Here the talk' details:
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28.08.2020
Tymele and Naval win LU 2020 Phd Awards
Many congratulations to Tymele and Naval for receiving the Loughborough University 2020 PhD Awards!
03.07.2020
Naval wins LU Doctoral College Research Student Prize
Naval has been awarded a Loughborough University (LU) Doctoral
College Research Student Prize. The award ceremony was held
(online) on Thursday 2nd July at the Doctoral College Annual Summer
Showcase.
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Naval was nominated by his primary supervisor, Dr Guido Bolognesi,
on the basis of outstanding academic performance, achievements and
contribution to the AACME School and LU over and above his own
research.
His academic achievements include several internally and externally
funded travel grants for attending international conferences and visiting partner laboratories, oral and poster presentations at international conferences and two prizes for best poster presentations at the ECIS Conference 2018 and SCI Postgraduate Scholars' Showcase 2019. He has also contributed to education and teaching activities within School, for which he received twice the LU's PhD Teaching Award in 2018 and 2019.
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The Loughborough University Doctoral College Research Student Prize is a prize of £200 which is awarded annually to two PhD students who have progressed beyond the first year of their research. This year, the panel had a difficult time deciding on the second winner and made the decision to split the second prize between two doctoral researchers, namely Naval and another PhD student.
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05.05.2020
Special Issue "Droplet Microfluidics: A Tool for Biology, Chemistry and Materials Engineering"
We are guest editing a Special Issue on MDPI Molecules!
Contributions to this issue may cover all aspects of droplet
generation and manipulation in microfluidic systems ranging
from fundamental aspects and modelling of droplet generation
and manipulation to various applications in chemistry, biology
and physics such as (but not limited to) chemical synthesis and micromixing within droplets, imaging, high-throughput screening, in vitro compartmentalisation and digestion, single-cell encapsulation, production of nanoparticles and microparticles, synthesis of cell and tissue mimics and drug delivery systems.
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Submission deadline 30 September 2020. If you are interested to contribute a paper, contact us.
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More information on the special issue is available here.
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04.05.2020
Congratulation to Ruqaiya for passing her PhD Viva!
On the 22nd April, Ruqaiya passed her PhD Viva. Her PhD project focused on the manufacturing of microstructured particles, such as multicore-shell capsules, Janus particles and others in microfluidic devices.
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To know more about Ruqaiya's reserach, check out her publications on Google Scholar.
01.04.2020
Praveen presents his research to MPs in STEM for Britain finals
Praveen has presented his research as part of the STEM for Britain finals in Westminster. As part of his PhD project, he has developed a Rapid Early Affordable Diagnostic test for infection and Resistance (READ-R). This project focuses on the development of fluorescence probe-based tests that detect bacteria and antibiotic sensitivity in urine.
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Before the finals, Loughborough MP Jane Hunt visited the Centre for Biological Engineering on campus to find out more about Praveen’s project.
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More information about Praveen's presentation at Westminster is available here.
23.03.2020
Phd Projects Available
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For more information about the projects and how to apply, contact us.
Applications from students supported by China Scholarship Council (CSC) are welcome. More information about CSC funding to support a PhD programme at Loughborough University can be found here.
PhD projects are available in our group. We are currently looking for highly talented graduated students to join our research group to work on one of the following projects
PhD projects are also available in the research groups of our collaborators. For more information, click the links below.
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