The Gagnon Lab

My group develops new methods to deploy diagnostics at the micro-scale. The central focus of our research is microfluidic and electrokinetic engineering, where we develop fundamental understanding for how to design microfluidic surfaces, interfaces, and structures that interact with electric fields and hydrodynamic forces to produce desirable phenomena for a wide variety of biomedical applications.

Some of our current research interests include:

Interfacial Electrokinetics

We are use AC electrokinetics as a platform for label-free biosensing. The ability to detect biomolecular targets without labels is important in clinical diagnostics, drug discovery, environmental monitoring, and biomedical research

Cellular Dielectrophoresis

We are always interested in using microfluidics and electrokinetics to solve novel and impactful problems. Currently, we are focusing part of our research efforts to help eliminate cheating in endurance sports. Using the electrokinetic method, dielectrophoresis we are developing assays to detect if athletes undergo illegal blood transfusions.

Microfluidics

We are interested in understanding how to perform complex automated fluidic and sample handling tasks. Our current work focuses on developing microscale free flow electrophoresis (FFE) and isotachophoreis (ITP) tools for on-chip sample preparation for NASA.

About the PI: Zachary Gagnon

Zach Gagnon's CV

Education

  • Ph.D. 2009

    Ph.D. in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering

    University of Notre Dame

  • M.S. 2005

    M.S. in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering

    Stanford University Graduate School of Business

  • B.S. 2003

    B.S. in Chemical Engineering

    University of Massachusetts, Amherst

Appointments

  • PresentMay 2018

    Associate Professor

    Texas A&M University, Department of Chemical Engineering

  • May 2018July 2011

    Assistant Professor

    Johns Hopkins University, Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering

    Recent Awards

    • October 2017
      NASA Early Career Faculty Award
      The goal of this project is to develop molecular pre-concentration, separation, extraction and amplification devices for proteins and nucleic acids for use in NASA flight missions.
    • January 2014
      NSF CAREER Award, Nanobiosensing
      The objective of this project is to develop low-cost electrokinetic biosensors.