Intimidating yet Inspiring: Emerging Investigators special issue

Aaron Wheeler completed his Ph.D. in Chemistry in 2003, working with Dick Zare at Stanford University. He then spent two years as an NIH postdoctoral fellow at UCLA, working with Robin Garrell (Chemistry and Biochemistry), with close ties to CJ Kim (Mechanical Engineering) and Joe Loo (Biological Chemistry). Since 2005, Wheeler has been the Canada Research Chair of Bioanalytical Chemistry at the University of Toronto, with a primary appointment in the Chemistry Department, and cross-appointments at the Institute for Biomaterials and Bioengineering (IBBME), and the Banting and Best Department of Medical Research (BBDMR). In Toronto, Wheeler is fortunate to work with a creative, prolific research group, whose success has led to international recognition including a Sloan Fellowship and an Eli Lilly and Company Young Investigator Award. Wheeler's research interests range broadly from proteomics to cell-based assays to clinical analysis, with a central theme focused on the development of practical and useful microfluidic tools.

Amy E. Herr received a BS degree in Engineering & Applied Science from the California Institute of Technology in 1997 and MS (1999) and PhD (2002) degrees from Stanford University in Mechanical Engineering as a US National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow, advised by Professors Thomas Kenny and Juan Santiago. From 2002–2007, Prof. Herr was a technical staff member at Sandia National Laboratories. In 2007, she began her appointment as an Assistant Professor of Bioengineering at the University of California, Berkeley and holds a joint appointment as a Faculty Scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. She has served as Chair (2009) and Vice-chair (2007) of the Gordon Research Conference (GRC) on the Physics & Chemistry of Microfluidics, as well as on international conference technical program committees including μTAS since 2008, Transducers, and IEEE Sensors. She has been honored to be named: a 2010 Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow in chemistry, a 2009 Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Young Faculty Awardee, a 2009 Hellman Family Faculty Awardee, a 2008 Regents' Junior Faculty Fellow, as well as a 2007 Outstanding Mentor from Sandia. Her research interests center on advancing quantitation in life sciences and clinical problems, particularly through the study and application of electrokinetic phenomena in multi-stage microanalytical technology.

From ARW: “Wow, that's an intimidating group.” I muttered these words about the audience just before stepping to the podium to give my first talk at a scientific conference – the Micro Total Analysis Systems (μTAS) meeting in Enschede, The Netherlands in May, 2000. Despite some nerves, I made it through the talk, and after a degree, a postdoc, and a few years as a professor, I wind up here, with the same thought: “wow, that's an intimidating group.” But this time, these words are directed towards the authors who contributed to this special issue of Lab on a Chip. From Axel Günther's work growing human arteries on a chip (DOI: 10.1039/c004675b) to Tony Huang's liquid lenses for on-chip optical analysis systems (DOI: 10.1039/c005071g), this issue features the best of the best in the field of microfluidics and related technologies.

From AEH: Intimidating challenges are routinely (and fearlessly) tackled by our field – this is especially true of our new investigators. In 2009, my co-chair and I at the Gordon Research Conference (GRC) on the Physics and Chemistry of Microfluidics introduced a new session dedicated to “emerging investigators”. The session was spectacular – I was inspired by the presenters' rigorous content and unabashed creativity, as well as the attendees' relentless inquiries. I walked away with insight into the problems that these emerging investigators identified as being important, which gave me opportunity to reflect on my own work. This special issue of Lab on a Chip aims to do the same for a broad and diverse audience. The range of topics included here has brought into sharp focus the intimidating breadth and difficulty of the challenges tackled by emerging investigators in our field. Perhaps most importantly, this issue paints a picture of the problems that the new generation of scientists in our field identifies as being important – and the broad impact their contributions are making across a wide range of disciplines.

When Harp Minhas, editor of Lab on a Chip, invited us to guest-edit this special Emerging Investigators issue as part of its 10th Anniversary celebrations, we jumped at the opportunity. The generation of scientists and engineers featured in this issue is the first to emerge as independent researchers with expertise targeted directly at our discipline (in contrast to the pioneers of microfluidics, who boldly migrated from other fields). As such, this generation is extraordinarily versatile, and is known for combining diverse tools and approaches – for example, 3D optical ablation with microreactors and mixing (see Hansen's work, DOI: 10.1039/c004051g), or polymer engineering with 3D-cell culture (see Khademhosseini's work, DOI: 10.1039/c004732e) – to carry out ever-more-complex and useful science. Moreover, this generation is moulding our field in significant ways, moving it from superficial overlap with challenges in chemistry, biology, medicine, and the environment, to the development of actual solutions to real-world problems – see, for example, Karen Cheung's method for anticancer drug testing (DOI: 10.1039/c004590j) and Aydogan Ozcan's tool for detecting waterborne parasites (DOI: 10.1039/c004829a). The innovation, creativity, and practicality featured in the papers in this issue of Lab on a Chip should make us all optimistic about the future of our field and the positive impact we are having on myriad others.

This generation of researchers is appropriately championed by the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), publisher of Lab on a Chip. The RSC fosters the development of young researchers in this field, through poster prizes at conferences (including μTAS, the GRC, and other important forums), the Pioneers of Miniaturisation Prize (http://www.rsc.org/Publishing/Journals/lc/miniaturisation_prize_2010.asp), the free “Chips and Tips” web feature (http://www.rsc.org/publishing/journals/lc/chips_and_tips/index.asp), showcasing LOC videos on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/user/labonachipVideos) and a flickr presence (http://www.flickr.com/photos/labonachip), a highly active and deeply engaged editorial staff, and more. We are honoured that the tradition continues with this special issue of Lab on a Chip. As you flip through the articles, be sure to enjoy the author biographies and the personal views that we solicited from each of the contributing authors (i.e., answers to questions such as “What interests you most about microfluidics and related technologies?” and “What do you think the future holds for this field?”).

So yes, we are a little intimidated – but more importantly, we are inspired, excited, and enthusiastic about the maturation of our field. Almost daily we are reminded of the growing importance of collective knowledge and tool sets from unrelated ares, spanning clinical medicine to neuroscience to energy sciences to molecular biology and beyond. So join us in enjoying this special issue: we think that you too will be eager to see where this generation of emerging investigators is taking us.

Aaron Wheeler

Canada Research Chair of Bioanalytical Chemistry

University of Toronto

Amy E. Herr

Assistant Professor, Department of Bioengineering

University of California, Berkeley

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