Free Lesson
Microfluidics & Lab-on-a-Chip: What Changes at Small Scales
45 min
Jul 8, 2026 12:00 PM
What you'll learn
Why small scales change everything
At sub-millimeter scales, surface forces dominate, flows are laminar, and mixing requires diffusion.
From silicon to PDMS: how microfluidics became accessible
The shift to soft lithography turned a specialist cleanroom process into a 24-hour benchtop workflow
Valves, mixers, droplets: the core toolkit
Three classes of components solve the key challenges on-chip: flow control, mixing, and compartmentalization
What you can actually do with a chip
From PCR to antibiograms to single-cell assays, working at picoliter volumes changes what is experimentally possible
Full course program
I will shortly walk you through the full syllabus of the Maven course.
Why this topic matters
Microfluidics is behind the COVID test, genome sequencers, and single-cell assays reshaping biology; but also fuel cells, battery electrolytes, and microreactors driving the next generation of energy technologies. Yet for most researchers and engineers, it remains a black box. Understanding the fundamentals changes how you design experiments, choose tools, and see what is possible at small scales
You'll learn from
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