Session B: 10:45AM – 12:15PM
Engineering. Session B – Poster Presentations, Ballroom, Union
SESSION B (10:45AM-12:15PM
Location: Ballroom, A. Ray Olpin University Union
Biomarker Discovery with GC-MS
Emily Lym, University of Utah
Faculty Mentor: Swomitra Mohanty, University of Utah
SESSION B (10:45AM-12:15PM)
POSTER B1
Tuberculosis (TB) is classified as a global health emergency that primarily appears in developing countries. For people in these countries, traveling to a medical clinic multiple times for diagnosis and treatment is often not feasible. Point-of-care diagnostics are necessary in order to appropriately respond to TB in these often impoverished communities. However, current diagnostic methods, including sputum microscopy, are time consuming and expensive. Notably, TB in children is especially difficult to diagnose and treat. Recent studies have identified several breath-based compounds, including methyl nicotinate, that could potentially serve as biomarkers for Mycobacterium tuberculosis. In an effort to verify and expand on these studies, breath samples from potential TB patients in Uganda have been analyzed using GC-MS techniques, including dual-column verification, standardized tests, and mass spectra interpretation. In a preliminary analysis of the data, we have found evidence supporting the correlation between methyl nicotinate and M. tuberculosis for adult patients but reveals no such relationship in child patients.
Artificial micro-swimming at low Reynolds number
Ruba Alraqibah, University of Utah
Faculty Mentor: Yong Lin Kong, University of Utah
SESSION B (10:45AM-12:15PM)
POSTER B2
Recent advances in microrobots have shown great promise for a wide range of biomedical applications with the potential of enabling new aspects of medicine ranging from targeted drug delivery to minimally invasive surgery. However, locomotion represents a significant challenge for robots at the microscale. Swimming at the microscale is challenging due to differences in the fundamental physics between the microscale and macroscale. At the microscale, fluid dynamics are characterized by a low Reynolds number (Re < 0.1) where motions are dominated by viscous forces rather than the inertial forces that dominate macroscale fluid dynamics. In nature, microorganisms have evolved swimming strategies to achieve locomotion in their low Re environment. Extensive development has focused on artificial biomimetic microswimming techniques such as the corkscrew and flexible oar methods. The flexible oar method is advantageous because of its simple design and actuation scheme – consisting of a flexible appendage whose oscillation produces propulsion. Here we explore the flexible oar approach of micro-swimmer designs at low Reynolds number. The work investigates propulsive characteristics of the micro-swimmer by experimentally evaluating the swimming of novel designs in a centimeter-scale setup in high viscosity oil that replicates the low Re environment. Experimenta