Achievement

IGERT trainee, Brian Plouffe is working on a novel microfluidics device to detect circulating tumor cells (CTCs) from blood using magnetic nanoparticles. Detection of CTCs helps in understanding the extent of cancer progression. The IGERT team of Dr. Shashi Murthy (IGERT advisor), Brian Plouffe (IGERT trainee), Dr. Srinivas Sridhar (IGERT Advisor) and Dr. Laura Lewis ((IGERT Advisor) worked on this project. Functionalization-induced changes to magnetic properties in Fe3O4 nanoparticles were observed. This is the first time such a phenomenon has been observed and results of this work was presented at the 53rd Magnetism and Magnetic Materials (MMM) Conference at Austin, TX in November 2008. This work also resulted in a publication in Journal of Applied Physics. Additionally, Dr. Laura Lewis (IGERT Advisor) presented this work at the 2009 Indo-US Workshop on Advanced Magnetic Materials and their Applications in Indian Institute of Technology (Mumbai, India) in March 2009.