Education
Ph.D., Northwestern University, 1999
M.S., University of Texas at Austin, 1994
B.S., University of Texas at Austin, 1991
Research Interests
Dr. Ugaz's research focuses on harnessing the unique characteristics of transport and flow at the microscale to enable development of advanced DNA analysis technologies. Areas of investigation include learning how to control electrophoretic migration of DNA and proteins in microchannels; using convective flow fields to execute thermally driven biochemical reactions such as the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in a faster an more efficient manner; designing novel geometries to mix chemical species in microchannels by exploiting secondary flow phenomena; developing new techniques that help understand how to manipulate and tailor the bulk properties of hydrogels by controlling their nanoporous morphology; and developing new polymer materials and processes to enable rapid and inexpensive construction of microfluidic devices.
Selected Publications
Chen, X. and Ugaz, V.M."Investigating DNA Migration in Pulsed Fields Using a Miniaturized Field Inversion Gel Electrophoresis System." Electrophoresis, 29 (2008): Accepted for publication.
Lo, R.C. and Ugaz, V.M."Microchip DNA Electrophoresis with Automated Whole-Gel Scanning Detection." Lab on a Chip, 8 (2008):Accepted for publication (DOI: 10.1039/B811033F).
Wang, J., Gonzalez, A.D., and Ugaz, V.M."Tailoring Bulk Transport in Hydrogels Through Control of Polydispersity in the Nanoscale Pore Size Distribution."Advanced Materials, 20 (2008): In press (DOI: 10.1002/adma.200801303).
Agrawal, N. Hassan, Y.A., and Ugaz, V.M."A Pocket-sized Convective PCR Thermocycler."Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 46 (2007): 4316-4319.Designated as a "Very Important Paper" by the journal editors.Highlighted in New Scientist [Iss. 2602 (5 May, 2007): 27].
Agrawal, N. and Ugaz, V.M."A Buoyancy-driven Compact Thermocycler for Rapid PCR."Clinics in Laboratory Medicine, 27 (2007): 215-223.