Bay Area Microfluidics Network brings together leaders in microfluidic technologies to foster innovation and collaboration within and amongst the region’s academic institutions and industries. Specifically, Bay Area Microfluidics Network seeks to 1) encourage academic-industrial collaborations and partnerships; 2) connect prospective employees such as graduate students and postdoctoral scholars to companies looking for talent; and 3) facilitate cross-pollination of ideas between the foremost authorities in microfluidic technologies.
Bay Area Microfluidics Network hosts a variety of networking events consisting of short talks or a panel discussion. Afterwards, attendees are encouraged to mingle in an informal setting. Come discover the latest and greatest work in microfluidics!
Thomas Carey
Thomas is an Engineer at Cytovale, where he works in R&D on the microfluidics consumable for the IntelliSep sepsis i vitro diagnostic. He earned his PhD in Bioengineering in the Sohn Lab at UC Berkeley, where his research focused on using tumor-derived extracellular vesicles to noninvasively screen for cancer. During the pandemic, he applied this EV detection work to another lipid bilayer nanoparticle: SARS-CoV-2. Thomas earned a B.S. in Engineering and Biology from Harvey Mudd College and previously worked as a Research Engineer at the BioMEMS Resource Center at Massachusetts General Hospital. Outside of lab, Thomas trains for triathlons and spends as much time outdoors as possible.
Samira Darvishi
Samira is a mechanical engineer at Signal Biosystems and is developing a microfluidic device that will make life easier for anyone conducting experiments with precious reagents. She started her training as an engineer in aerospace at Sharif University of Technology, Iran. Her master’s at Stony Brook University was focused on studying two phase flow in microchannels and developing new inexpensive micro-fabrication techniques using lasers. For her PhD (major: fluid dynamics, minor: renewable energy technologies) she worked with Dr. Mary Frame, a physiologist, and studied red blood cell flow in pre-capillary arteries using microfluidic devices that she designed and fabricated. She was the lead microfluidics engineer at Prellis Biologics, where she worked on developing the technology to 3D print human tissue by applying principles of microfluidics to designing vasculature for various 3D structures.