NEWARK , February 11, 2000 -New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) has received a $500,000 grant from the W.M. Keck Foundation to establish a world-class Laboratory to develop microchip technology for medical screening.

      The technology could lead to a host of medical screening applications ranging from rapid identification of cancerous cells in the bloodstream to battlefield analysis of biological warfare agents.

      The planned W.M. Keck Foundation Laboratory for Electro-Hydrodynamics of Suspensions will be a world-class NJIT facility aimed at developing miniaturized analytical systems - laboratories on a microchip -- that use electric fields to manipulate and separate nanoscale-sized particles suspended in liquids. A nanometer is a billionth of a meter or a thousandth of a micron (A human hair is on average, about 70,000 nanometers or 70 microns or 0.0028 inches in diameter).

      Such technology could be used to rapidly sort and identify bacteria, viruses, spores, etc. by means of a hand-held device. A soldier in the battlefield could detect biological warfare agents in seconds and know if he's been exposed.

      The three scientists heading up the new laboratory are NJIT Associate Professor Boris Khusid, and Jacobus Chair Professor Nadine Aubry, both members of NJIT's Department of Mechanical Engineering, and Andreas Acrivos, Albert Einstein Professor of Science and Engineering and Director of the Levich Institute, The City College of the City University of New York. Aubrey also holds a joint appointment in NJIT's Department of Mathematical Sciences.

      A little further down the development road, the ability to sort and identify particles on a nanometer level could lead to other breakthroughs in biotechnology and molecular-scale chemistry, the discovery of micoorganisms, and advanced environmental monitoring and control systems, say the three scientists, who developed the proposal to establish the NJIT Keck Foundation laboratory.

      The W.M. Keck Foundation of Los Angeles is one of the nation's largest philanthropic organizations. Established in 1954 by the late William Myron Keck, founder of The Superior Oil Company, the Foundation's grant-making is focused primarily on the areas of medical research, science, and engineering. The foundation supports only what it considers to be exemplary scientific, engineering, and medical research programs at accredited universities and colleges throughout the United States.

      The grant will provide NJIT with unique, state-of-the-art instrumentation to characterize colloids (liquids with suspended particles) such as a high-resolution dielectric spectrometer to study the structure and dynamics of colloids, an atomic force microscope for imaging and measuring the forces that come into play on the atomic level in colloids, and a scanning near-field optical microscope for imaging objects on a nanometer scale.

      Other equipment will include multifunctional particle characterization instrumentation to identify a wide range of particle-size distributions and advanced systems for three-dimensional digital particle image velocimetry for measuring components of the particle velocities in a flowing liquid.

      The microchip technology to be developed at the new NJIT Keck Foundation laboratory is part of the burgeoning field of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), machines that are sculpted into a silicon microchip in the same way that semiconductors for computers are made. These tiny systems include sensors, pumps and motors that can be used for everything from airbag deployment to chemical analysis.

      A key factor in winning the Keck grant was NJIT's existing leadership role in MEMS technology. The university has its own Microelectronics Research Center (MRC) and "cleanroom" for development of micromachines (ultraclean surroundings are needed to prevent damage to the fragile devices). Among the projects underway at MRC are a microfluidic chip for DNA analysis, an optically integrated pressure sensor and a device for modulating signals in fiber optic cables.

      Another reason for the award is NJIT's commitment to research with real-world, practical, application results. Notes NJIT President Saul Fenster, "One of our primary goals is to bring technological advances to practical reality in partnership with business and industry; to strengthen the regional economy and ultimately improve lives. The research to be performed at the W.M. Keck Foundation laboratory will be a perfect fit for this key NJIT mission."

      Moreover, says the NJIT President, the new laboratory will enhance the top-quality education students receive at NJIT: "It will provide students with research training across disciplines in cutting-edge bioengineering and micro/nanotechnology."

      The planned laboratory's research into nanometer-level devices to detect microorganisms in fluids is based on the team's research in high field electro-hydrodynamics, the study of microscopic particles suspended in flowing liquids that are subjected to a spatially non-uniform electric field -- an electric field that varies in strength at different points along its axis.

      The team's work focuses on studying the synergistic effect caused by electrical and hydrodynamic forces on the particles - why the particles randomly distributed in a moving fluid tend to aggregate together when an electrical field is applied.

      Based on this knowledge, the researchers are developing a palm-sized electro-hydrodynamic filter for the U.S. Navy. The goal is a self-cleaning device that can be permanently installed in shipboard systems to filter out contaminants such as combustion byproducts and metal flakings that shorten the life of machinery.

      The filter consists of a top and bottom plate lined with channels packed with tiny electrodes that generate an electric field. By varying the electric field as a fluid moves through the channel, the particles can be sorted and aggregated around the electrodes in a manner similar to the way iron filings are attracted to a magnet. Once aggregated around the electrodes, they can be easily flushed out as the electrodes are de-energized.

      The device makes use of the fact that a particle exposed to an electric field acquires a "dipole moment" - it acts temporarily like a tiny magnet - with properties that vary according to the substance of which it consists. Although hydrodynamic forces also come into play, the electrical forces serve as a kind of "electronic signature" to sort out the different particles from each other.

      The Keck Foundation Laboratory will develop similar devices on a nano-level scale with focus on biological applications. With "seed funding" provided by NJIT's Microelectrical Research Center, the team had already begun work on a nano-level detecting device prior to the Keck Grant. Working with the Center researchers, the team is aiming for a "laboratory on a microchip" that would be the heart of a small device for analyzing microorganisms in liquids.

      As with particles found in lubricants, microscopic living organisms such as bacteria and viruses also can be polarized so that they have "electronic signatures" which allow them to be sorted by means of an electric field and once sorted out, identified by biologists.

      The heart of the proposed on-chip technology is an array of 174 "electrokinetic micro-chambers" etched on a four-inch silicone wafer. The micro-chambers are equipped with arrays of tiny electrodes to generate a variety of electric fields to control and separate suspensions of bacteria, viruses, spores, and other tiny organisms. A micro-syringe would drive the fluid containing the microscopic organisms through the chambers. When an electric field is generated, the organisms could be sorted according to their electronic signatures.

      Detecting microorganisms will merely be scratching the surface of the possibilities once the new Keck laboratory is up and running, according to the research team members. As the researchers noted in their proposal, "We have not even imagined some of the science, engineering and medical research and development it is going to make possible."

      NJIT is a public research university enrolling nearly 8,200 bachelor's, master's and doctoral students in 87 degree programs through its five colleges: Newark College of Engineering, New Jersey School of Architecture, College of Science and Liberal Arts, the School of Management and the Albert Dorman Honors College. Research initiatives include manufacturing, microelectronics, multimedia, transportation, computer science, solar astrophysics, environmental engineering and science, and architecture and building science.

      Yahoo! Internet Life magazine has ranked NJIT as America's "most wired" public university for two consecutive years, U.S. News and World Report's 1999 Annual Guide to America's Best Colleges ranked NJIT among the nation's top universities, and Money magazine's most recent issue of Best College Buys rated NJIT as the sixth best value among U.S. science and technology schools and among the top 100 overall. In September 1999, Mademoiselle ranked NJIT as the second most Internet-connected university in the nation.