Motility and Transport Behavior of Soft Colloids

Research Interests:

In this poster, I present an overview of my research on building active colloids and colloidal systems, and manipulating their transport behavior through external (imposed gradient/ microenvironment) and intrinsic (materials/ size/ shape of colloid) means. As an aspiring industry candidate, I envision working at the interface of chemical engineering, biochemistry and material science to tackle industry challenges in formulations and formulation processes. By applying my colloidal and surface science expertise, I aim to understand the physico-chemical properties of food, pharmaceutics, and fine chemicals formulations to develop products that are optimized for customer needs.

Research Experience:

My research experience of 7 years encompasses areas of active colloids, emulsions and microfluidics. Prior to my PhD work at Penn State Chemical Engineering, I worked as a research engineer at the National University of Singapore for two years, where I also received my undergraduate degree from. Here is a brief description of my research as (1) a PhD student and (2) a research engineer/ undergraduate student.

1. Colloids and active matter (2016 – Present)

During my time at Penn State, I worked to understand the motility and diffusion behavior of soft colloids such as enzymes, proteins and vesicles. A major part of my research comprises of characterizing movement and determining the mechanism of movement of soft colloids. Through this experience I developed expertise in areas of colloidal synthesis and characterization, colloidal and interfacial science, and fluid dynamics.

• Developed enzyme-powered protocell nanomotors as potential biocompatible cargo transporters.
• Characterized a new mechanism of motor movement based on solute-membrane interactions
• Applied microfluidic and microscopy techniques to study and characterize the behavior of active molecules and colloids in gradients of solutes
• Experienced in the techniques of microfluidic gradient generators, surface functionalization of diverse colloids such as polystyrene, silica, vesicles, proteins and enzymes and fabricating active colloids
• Characterization techniques like dynamic light scattering, zetasizer, confocal microscopy, fluorescence recovery after photobleaching, enzyme and protein purification, particle size and diffusion analysis

2. Microfluidic emulsion based processing of colloids (2013 – 2016)

During my time at the National University of Singapore, I used microfluidic emulsion generators to synthesize micro/ nanoparticles for a variety of applications. The research I did during my undergraduate thesis project and as a research engineer culminated into a start-up spin off from my lab. Through this experience I developed expertise in areas of microfluidic emulsion generators, cargo encapsulation and materials formulation.

• Developed a comprehensive research strategy to understand and evaluate the effect of polymeric materials on crystallization of pharmaceutical formulations through microfluidic emulsion based processing
• Established and optimized the study of mucoadhesive polymers for particle based ocular drug delivery and quantified the extent of mucoadhesion for various biocompatible polymers
• Developed functional food structures of sodium alginate in the form of microparticles and thin fibres using microfluidic emulsion generation techniques
• Worked on the flow based hydrogenation of organic compounds (hexene, nitrobenzene) through tube-based millifluidic reactors