The Gordon Research Conference on the Physics and Chemistry of Microfluidics will be held from August 21st through August 26th, 2005 at Magdalen College in Oxford, England. Dr. Laurie E. Locascio of the National Institute of Standards and Technology will act as Chair for this conference. The conference Vice- Chair will be Prof. Dr. Sabeth Verpoorte of the University of Groningen. This conference will include sessions on Nanobiotechnology, Nanoscale Transport, Single Molecule Manipulation and Measurement, Pushing the Boundaries of Separations, Microfluidics for Cell-Based Assays, as well as a discussion session on the topic of Nanotechnology versus Microtechnology. The majority of applications for microfluidics technology to date have been in the area of DNA separations, DnA hybridization assays, and multiplexed clinical analyses for biomarkers of disease. Many of the sessions in this conference will address these issues that are of interest to NIGMS and NIBIB programs. Also, the 2005 conference will include new sessions that focus on characterization of single DNA and RNA molecules using microfluidics technology as the platform to facilitate these difficult measurements. While some of the other sessions do not specifically address NIGMS and NIBIB programs, it has been shown that microfluidics and microengineering are powerful technologies that can be used to facilitate and dramatically improve the formation, characterization and application of nanoparticles that may be used as markers of disease. Since microfluidics is a highly multidisciplinary field, participants will be from many diverse backgrounds including bioengineering, chemistry, biology, physics, chemical engineering, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering and materials science. Based on data from other conferences in this series, participants will represent academia, government, and industry with the majority of participants from the academic sector. One of the main goals of this conference will be to encourage interaction and challenging discussion among participants from diverse backgrounds in order to facilitate the further application of microfluidics technologies to help elucidate complex biological problems.
