Project list

Wallace H. Coulter Foundation, Early Career Award (Phase II), "Prototyping Lab-on-a-Chip Based on Liquid Core Optical Ring Resonators For Detection of Breast Cancer Biomarkers," $260,000 (PI)

NSF, ECCS-0608745, "Functionalized Nanoscale Materials for Sensor Architectures," $102,392 (shared PI credit with Prof. Sheila Grant)

NSF, ECCS-0729903, "Development of highly sensitive ultrafast micro gas chromatography for explosive detection", $400,000 (PI)

NSF-CAREER, CBET-0747398, "Fluorescence Resonant Energy Transfer in Opto-fluidic Ring Resonators for Ultrasensitive Biomolecule Detection," $400,000 (single PI)

American Chemistry Petroleum Research Fund, 43879-G10, "Single Molecule Raman Detection with a Composite Microresonator and Metal Nanocavity System," $35,000 (single PI, no overhead)

Wallace H. Coulter Foundation, Early Career Award, "Prototyping Lab-on-a-Chip Based on Liquid Core Optical Ring Resonators For Detection of Breast Cancer Biomarkers," $238,000 (PI)

3M Foundation, Non-Tenured Faculty Award, $67,500 (no overhead, single PI)

Missouri Beef Industry Council, "Rapid Simultaneous Detection of Escherichia coli O157:H7 and Salmonella in Ground Beef by Quantum Dot Labeled Antibodies and Immunomagnetic Separation," $51,792 (shared the PI credit with Prof. Azlin Mustapha, no overhead)

NIH 5K25EB006011, "Highly Sensitive Biosensor Platform Using Optical Microring Resonators," $447,953, (Primary mentor)

NIH 5R21EB5840-3, "Atomic Force-FRET Microscopy," $569,843 (8%, PI: Gerald Meininger)

UM-Research Board, "Novel Raman Bio/Chemical Sensors," $27,742, (single PI, no overhead)

MU-Research Council, "Multiplexed liquid core optical ring resonator sensors with sub-nanoliter detection volume," $7,500 (single PI, no overhead)

DARPA-subcontract from ICx Nomadics, "Micro-gas-chromatography based on liquid core optical ring resonator," $12,000 (single PI).

MU Bioprocessing and Biosensing Center (multiple grants)

 

Dr. Fan’s lab focuses on the development of novel bio/chemical sensor platform based on opto-fluidic ring resonators. As compared to regular waveguide-based sensors, ring resonator sensors will potentially feature low detection limit, low sample consumption, and large integration density. Both label-free and fluorescence-labeled detection protocols are used in either planar or spherical ring resonators. In addition to the detection of large bio-entities such as protein molecules and bacteria, this lab is also interested in small molecule detection, which is useful for drug discovery.

Since the intensity of the light in a ring resonator can greatly be enhanced, nonlinear optical detection becomes possible. Dr. Fan’s lab is also dedicated to developing nonlinear optical sensors that can open up a new avenue to sensing transduction mechanisms.

Nanophotonics is another research area in Dr. Fan’s lab. Fluorescent semiconductor quantum dots and metal nanoparticles will be used in combination with ring resonator technology. One current project is to achieve enhanced Raman scattering through the hybrid system of  ring resonator and gold nanoparticles. Another project is to achieve organized arrays of semiconductor quantum dots and gold nanoparticles on a silicon wafer through nanoporous templating or self-assembly.

Students in Dr. Fan’s lab will learn the optical waveguide/fiber, nanotechnologies, and optical biosensor theory and gain hands-on experience through research projects that are mentioned previously. Additionally, students are expected to join interdisciplinary research endeavor in such areas as waveguide fabrication, surface characterization, nanoparticle fabrication and manipulation, and biomolecule synthesis and immobilization.

 

 

Please read our review article on "liquid core optical ring resonator sensors" (published at Proc. SPIE 6452-18, Photonics West, San Jose, CA 2007, invited paper)

Please read our news release at