(565e) From Electrokinetics to Microfluidics and Back

Electrokinetics of electrolytes is a fascinating field, and probably one of the areas of physics in which numerous discoveries and surprises remain ahead of us, in spite of its rooting in the century-old Maxwell equations.

In this conference, I shall present some of my personal surprising encounters with this complexity, and how it brought me towards microfluidics. Iâ??ll also present some examples of other fascinating microfluidic applications also rooted in the Maxwell equations, but rather on the magnetic side. They concern, in particular, to the use of magnetic microparticles for various analytical applications, focusing on attempts to bring this technology from the research laboratory to clinical applications. Finally, Iâ??ll provide a personal view of some future challenges of electrokinetic issues in the microfluidic context. This will include recent attempts in our group, to use the electrokinetic instabilities often detrimental to conventional electrophoresis, as a tool for sensitive DNA detection. This work was supported in part by European projects NADINE LOVE-FOOD, ERC Cello, and French ANR project DIGIDIAG