The Center for Advanced Design and Manufacturing of Integrated Microfluidics (CADMIM) is a public-private NSF center that helps companies address technical challenges via scalable lab-on-a-chip technology. Through productive, meaningful partnerships between universities and industry, we develop microscale tools and technologies aimed at simpler, faster, and cheaper analytical solutions addressing human health, agriculture, and the environment. Join us and realize key benefits regarding first access to cutting-edge lab-on-a-chip research, recruiting, and relationship building.
This short video, produced by UIDP and featuring CADMIM, presents an overview of the National Science Foundation (NSF) Industry-University Cooperative Research Center (IUCRC) program and how these unique centers operate, contribute to the nation’s research infrastructure base, facilitate technology transfer, and enhance the intellectual capacity of the science and engineering workforce through the integration of research and education. Access it here: 
Testimonials
“Our CADMIM membership is pivotal in building a network with world leading experts in microfluidics. CADMIM enabled us to conduct research projects at the transition from basic research to industrial application expanding our capabilities far beyond internal expertise. Combined with the focus on manufacturability the center offers a unique set of expertise and opportunities.”
– Dr. Frank Narz, Director R&D Scientific Applications, QIAGEN GmbH
“CADMIM offers a unique blend of university research from leading researchers in the field supported by leading providers of microfluidic manufacture and development. For the industrial members of CADMIM, who are interested in new product opportunities, this means novel IP is quickly reduced to practice for real world applications.”
– Dr. Leanna Levine, Founder, President and CEO, ALine, Inc.
“With tight research budgets, CADMIM offers an opportunity to leverage industrial investments. We’ve been able to guide world-class research in microfluidics toward challenges in technology development that are barriers to transition. Working in partnership with other members of the industrial advisory board has also brought valuable insight to our programs.”
– Dr. Laura Rea, Program Manager, Soft Matter Materials Branch, Air Force Research Laboratory
News
Successful Spring IAB Meeting
Great to see everyone virtually in March 2025. Also, many thanks to all the students and post-docs who prepared posters. Congratulations to the new leaders of the CADMIM Industrial Advisory Board (IAB). For the 2025-2026 term Dr. Mary Clare McCorry, External Engagement Project Lead at Sanofi, will serve as IAB Chair, and Dr. Xinming Tong, Senior Systems Specialist at Genentech, will serve as IAB Vice-Chair. We really appreciate and look forward to your guidance and leadership at the center this year.
Salman Khetani = Associate Head of BME at UIC
Starting in 2025, Dr. Salman Khetani (CADMIM Core faculty at University of Illinois, Chicago) is now the Associate Head of the Richard and Loan Hill Biomedical Engineering Department at the University of Illinois Chicago. Congratulations on the new position!
3 UCI Graduate Students Start Internships, Funded by NSF INTERN
Three UC Irvine PhD graduate students embarked on 6-month internships in industry, funded by the NSF INTERN program, starting March 31, 2025:
- Mr. Eric Wang, PhD Candidate in the laboratory of Dr. Quinton Smith, CADMIM Affiliated Faculty, started an internship at Sanofi in Cambridge, MA (CADMIM IAB Member).
- Ms. Xinlei Chen, PhD Candidate in the laboratory of Dr. Michelle Khine, CADMIM Affiliated Faculty, started an internship at Amgen at their headquarters in Thousand Oaks, CA (former IAB member).
- Ms. Ailin Zhang, PhD graduate student in the laboratory of Dr. Jered Haun, CADMIM Core Faculty, started an internship at Cellecho Biotechnologies in Irvine, CA.
Elliot Hui Captures R21 Grant from NIH
Elliot Hui, CADMIM Core faculty at UC Irvine received an R21 grant from the NIH National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences for a project titled “Autonomous Platform for Pulsatile Soluble Stimulation.” This 2-year project aims to understand how hormones are regulated, crucial for advancing the treatment of endocrine diseases. Many hormones are released in pulses, rather than continuously, but reproducing this pulsatile environment in the lab is challenging. This project will develop a microfluidic platform that can mimic the natural pulsatile secretion of hormones, allowing scientists to study their regulation and develop new therapies.
2 UCI Undergraduate Students Receive REU Awards
Two Research Experiences for Undergraduate (REU) supplements were awarded to the University of California, Irvine. Giovanni Tam (Abe Lee’s Lab) is working on a project titled “Controlling Ligand Density through Oligonucleotides on Artificial Antigen Presenting Cells.” Houston Nguyen (Wendy Liu’s Lab) is working on a project titled “Heart-on-a-chip to Study Immune-stromal Interactions During Cardiac Fibrosis.”
Journal Publications from CADMIM Research Groups
- Giuseppe Lauricella, Mohammad Moein Naderi, Jian Zhou, Ian Papautsky, Zhangli Peng, “Dynamics of ellipsoidal particles in inertial shear flow between two parallel walls,” Journal of Fluid Mechanics, v. 984, April 10, 2024. Article about paper
- Braulio Cardenas-Benitez, Richard Hurtado, Xuhao Luo, Abraham Lee, “Three-dimensional Isotropic Imaging of Live Suspension Cells Enabled by Droplet Microvortices,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), 121 (44), e2408567121, October 22, 2024. Access paper: Publication
For more news, please check our LinkedIn Group: