Conference Entrance

Conference Check-In

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Conference Registration, Materials Pick-Up, Coffee and Tea

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Morning Plenary Session Focused on Extracellular Vesicles (EVs)/Exosomes

**Full Access to All Attendees to this Plenary Session**

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Hotel Restaurant

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Networking Lunch

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Lavendar Room

Keynote Presentation

Levent Yobas, Professor, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology -- Session Chairperson

Session Chaired by Professor Levent Yobas -- Topics Addressed in this Session + Scientific Presentation by Professor Yobas

A Point-of-Care Pathogen Detection Using Reagent-Free Nucleic Acid Purification

Rapid diagnosis of infectious pathogens requires technologies that integrate sample preparation, nucleic acid purification, and detection without compromising sensitivity or turnaround time. Yet most point-of-care molecular assays remain constrained by complex reagent workflows and slow purification steps that limit true sample-to-answer operation. In this talk, I present a compact microfluidic system that performs reagent-free electrophoretic purification and colorimetric LAMP detection of MRSA directly from human serum. Central to the platform is a micropillar sieve that employs selectively focus and enrich nucleic acids while removing proteins and serum contaminants under rotating electric fields, without beads, membranes, or chemical wash buffers. By integrating on-chip enzymatic lysis, electrophoretic purification, and isothermal amplification, a 45-minute sample-to-answer workflow is enabled with a limit of detection of 1 CFU per reaction, surpassing most existing microfluidic systems. The system further demonstrates species-level specificity for MRSA, MSSA, and E. coli using targeted primer sets, enabled by a low-cost optical readout. Our work introduces a molecular diagnostic that advances point-of-care pathogen detection.

Lavendar Room

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Abraham Qavi, Assistant Professor, Director of Point of Care Testing, Director of Innovative Laboratory Diagnostics, University of California-Irvine, United States of America

Engineering Light for Rapid Point-of-Care Diagnostics

Rapid, accurate point-of-care diagnostics are increasingly critical for timely clinical decision-making, particularly in settings where reliance on centralized laboratory testing introduces delays that prolong clinical decision points and adversely impact patient care. In this talk, I will discuss how photonic resonators and plasmonic-enhanced sensing strategies can be integrated into compact, scalable diagnostic formats suitable for point-of-care testing. Emphasis will be placed on rapid detection of viral targets and the associated host response. The presentation will also address practical considerations for point-of-care deployment, including assay robustness, regulatory pathways, and integration with existing clinical workflows. Together, these examples illustrate how advanced optical biosensing technologies can move beyond proof-of-concept toward clinically impactful diagnostics.

Lavendar Room

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Leyla Soleymani, Professor, McMaster University, Canada

Combining Functional Nucleic Acids and Electrochemistry for Frequent Health Monitoring

This talk will focus on the work of my group in combining functional nucleic acids, particularly DNAzymes and aptamers, with electrochemistry for a wide range of applications including surveillance, point-of-care diagnostics, and wearable sensing.

Exhibit Foyer

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Mid-Afternoon Coffee Break and Networking -- Coffee, Tea and Light Snacks

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Lavendar Room

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Chia-Hung Chen, Associate Professor, City University of Hong Kong

Living Surface–Anchored Microfluidic Immunosorbent Assay Enables Deep Single-Cell Phenotyping and Functional Sorting

Precision medicine requires addressing not only inter-patient variability but also the profound cellular heterogeneity within tumors. However, the molecular and secretory functional diversity of single cells remains poorly characterized, largely due to the lack of technologies that combine high sensitivity, throughput, and speed to isolate rare functional cell subsets. Here, we present the microfluidic Living Surface-Anchored Immunosorbent Assay (LISA), a high-throughput platform for multiplexed single-cell secretion analysis with nanomolar sensitivity. LISA enables deep phenotyping and sorting of up to 10⁷ single cells within 30 minutes, exceeding the throughput of existing droplet-based methods by more than ten-fold. Using LISA, we identified rare immune cells with ultra-high cytokine secretion, complex surface marker profiles, and potent cytotoxicity, together with their distinct transcriptional signatures. LISA enables scalable functional single-cell analysis and advances precision oncology and immunotherapy.

Lavendar Room

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Han Wei Hou, Associate Professor, School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, Nanyang Technological University Singapore

Microfluidic Impedance-Deformability Cytometry for Rapid Cardiovascular Risk Stratification

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) presents a global health burden with cardiovascular disease (CVD) as its leading cause of mortality. In this talk, I will present a rapid clinical-adaptable workflow for high-throughput single cell “electro-mechano-phenotyping” using microfluidic impedance-deformability cytometry to assess leukocyte biophysical abnormalities (size, deformability, and impedance properties) linked to inflammation, thrombosis, and hyperglycemia in vitro, in diabetic and diabetic atherosclerosis-prone mouse models, and in a clinical study of healthy, pre-diabetes, diabetes, and diabetic patients with CVD (DM-CVD) subjects. Our results showed that DM-CVD neutrophils exhibited distinct impedance signature and pro-inflammatory transcriptomic profile marked by cytoskeletal dysregulation and altered RhoA signaling, which correlated with clinical vascular dysfunction including increased carotid intima-media thickness and reduced reactive hyperemia index. These findings support impedance-based leukocyte profiling as a promising, cost-effective strategy for cardiovascular risk stratification in T2DM.

Lavendar Room

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Kangning Ren, Professor, Department of Chemistry, Hong Kong Baptist University

Rapid Phenotypic Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing for Improved Treatment of Infections

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) presents a significant threat to global public health as microbes increasingly develop resistance to antibiotics. The misuse of antibiotics in healthcare and the environment has accelerated this issue. To combat AMR effectively, it is essential to identify the most suitable drugs and dosages for optimal treatment. In clinical practice, phenotypic antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) is more commonly used than analyzing known resistance genes, primarily due to its reliability. However, traditional AST methods face considerable limitations, including slow processing times, low efficiency, high costs, and the inability to assess polymicrobial AST and drug combinations. To address these challenges, we have developed microfluidic technologies that leverage optical analysis to observe single-cell responses of bacteria to drug exposure. These methods exploit the capabilities of microfluidic devices to streamline sample pretreatment and shorten detection time, effectively reducing the incubation period. Our approach utilizes a purely optical detection scheme, eliminating the need for dyes, electronic sensors, or nanomaterials, which enhances reliability in real-world operational scenarios. Furthermore, our system can perform AST for mixed bacterial populations and assess drug combinations. This method has been validated with clinical patient samples, achieving AST results within 2 hours or less, with minimal facility requirements and at an affordable cost.