Hardware/Wetware Co-Design: CAD for Microfluidic Synthetic Biology

Bio-design automation approaches in synthetic biology look to improve the abstraction, standardization, and modularly available to engineers to design living systems. Many approaches are focused on how to take biological building blocks, frequently DNA segments, and compose them to realize a high level function coupled with an automated assembly approach. This talk will outline that this approach (the creation of â??wetwareâ?) can be integrated with the parallel design of low cost, fully customized microfluidics (â??hardwareâ?) to create â??hybrid bio-electronic systemsâ?. These systems can provide new biological functions, test capabilities, or design exploration platforms. Specifically I will talk about my labâ??s â??Fluigiâ? and â??Makerfluidicsâ? CAD tools toward the creation of dynamically programmable microfluidics for synthetic biology.