Abstract
In the past year and a half, I have worked in Dr. Nathan Swami’s Biophysical Systems lab as a research assistant, building a signal processing system that analyzes real-time signals from lab produced microfluidic chips. These microfluidic chips are research level lab-on-a-chip devices - they serve to analyze characteristics of individual cells such as tumor cells. I believe that this technology has the potential to unlock new, previously technically unfeasible types of diagnostic testing, so I investigated lab-on-a-chips devices in my STS research. Through this research, I examined how new lab-on-a-chip diagnostic tests could impact the stigma of issues surrounding what they test for by looking at common lab-on-a-chip diagnostic tests.
The goal of my technical capstone was to develop a system that detects physical characteristics of biological cells flowing through a microfluidic chip at speeds high enough to trigger an on-chip sorting mechanism for Dr. Swami’s lab. My previous work with the lab did not meet the speed requirements, so I dedicated my capstone to building a better system. To accomplish this, my partner and I produced both a 10 layer mixed-signal printed circuit board (PCB) for sensor stimulation, signal acquisition, and analog ↔ digital conversion as well as a high speed analysis and triggering hardware-software design. Integrating these two designs with Dr. Swami’s lab-on-a-chip devices will allow our group to actively sort individual cells in a non-destructive way and classify them using physical properties. This is important because it enables reuse of samples, reducing the amount of fluid needed, allows isolation of rare cells for research applications, and helps identify certain types of uncommon cells like circulating tumor cells.
Since my technical capstone focused on creating new medical diagnostic tools, I investigated how lab-on-a-chip devices impact social stigma. I first examined the current state of lab-on-a-chip technology and found that the technology still remains in its infancy, with applications like single cell analysis and organ-on-a-chip still in the research phase. Next, I analyzed at-home pregnancy and COVID-19 tests, examples of lab-on-a-chip technology, to understand how they affected the stigma around the issues they treated. Finally, I looked at future lab-on-a-chip applications, similar to what I built with my capstone, and found that they will likely reduce stigma because they reduce threats and normalize testing of disease. Understanding how stigma interplays with these devices prepares us for a future where they are commonplace.
Combining my STS research with my technical work has helped me understand the direct impacts of my engineering efforts more clearly. Even though I narrowed my STS research’s focus to stigma, through the investigative process I learned about many other ethical aspects surrounding the technology I am building. For example, the extreme personalization of medicine through single cell analysis, technology I am enabling, has the potential to increase discrimination based on inherent, uncontrollable attributes. Understanding not only the technical side of engineering, but both technical and ethical sides help make me better understand the impacts of what I create and evaluate why I do what I do.
My technical capstone was funded by Dr. Swami’s lab and the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at The University of Virginia.
