
Overview
Background
Currently looking for motivated PhD candidates from diverse disciplines, including but not limited to engineering (e.g., mechanical, biomedical, mechatronics, materials, and chemical), information technology, physics and biomedicine.
Fully funded PhD scholarship is available:
https://study.uq.edu.au/study-options/phd-mphil-professional-doctorate/projects/viscoelastic-microfluidics-biomedical-and-environmental-applications
Dr Dan Yuan is a Lecturer in Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering (2022 - ongoing) and an ARC DECRA Fellow (2024 - 2027) within the School of Mechanical and Mining Engineering (SoMME) at the University of Queensland. Dan has been successful in obtaining competitive grant funding including over $1.6M as chief investigator in a range of projects (ARC DECRA Fellowship, ARC LIEF, Japan Society for Promotion of Science (JSPS) Fellowship, Alfred Deakin Postdoctoral Research Fellowship). She completed her PhD at the University of Wollongong (UOW) in 2018. After graduation, she continued her research at UOW as an Associate Research Fellow. From 2019 to 2021, she was a JSPS Research Fellow in the Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, University of Tokyo. From 2021 to 2022, she worked as an Alfred Deakin Research Fellow at Deakin University.
Based on the micro-nano devices, she was doing interdisciplinary research of mechatronics, chemistry, physics, optics, environmental and biomedical applications, aiming at addressing real-life challenges in both environment and biomedicine. Her research interests are microfluidics, microfabrication, development of point-of-need devices for environmental and biomedical applications, intelligent image activated cell sorting, and smart sensors, materials and platforms.
In less than 10 years’ research time, she published over 70 peer-reviewed journal articles which have received > 4000 citations. The prestigious journals include Adv. Funct. Mater., Nat. Commun., Small, Lab Chip, Microsystems & Nanoengineering, and Anal. Chem. She currently has an h-index of 30. She was the Guest Editor for Biosensors (2022), Frontiers in Medical Technology (2021-2022); regular independent reviewer for more than 10 international journals such as ACS Nano, Lab on a Chip, Analytical Chemistry, Microsystems and Nanoengineering, Scientific Reports, IEEE Transactions on Mechatronics, Microfluidics and Nanofluidics, Cytometry Part A. etc.
Master's and PhD positions are opening. The potential research projects include physics of fluid flow (especially non-Newtonian fluids) in micro/nano-channels, manipulation and separation of micro-/nanoparticles and fluid control, development of point-of-need devices for environmental and biomedical applications (e.g. disease diagnosis and therapeutics), intelligent microfluidics. Candidates with backgrounds in engineering (e.g., mechanical, mechatronics, materials, chemical and biomedical etc.), information technology, physics and biomedicine are welcome to enquiry.
Availability
- Dr Dan Yuan is:
- Available for supervision
Research impacts
Dr Dan Yuan is a lead researcher in the field of viscoelastic microfluidics and its applications. She has developed comprehensive understanding of fundamental physics for particle migration in microfluidics especially viscoelastic microfluidics, which could expand the boundary of current knowledge. Also, she has developed cutting-edge microfluidic technologies for particle and cell manipulation and separation, aiming at addressing real-life challenges in both biomedicine and environment. Her research achievements and emerging reputation have been acknowledged by the broader scientific community. She was awarded the competitive ARC DECRA Fellowship, Alfred Deakin Research Fellowship and JSPS Fellowship as a chief investigator and secured over $1.6M AUD research funding in total.
She was the first to develop viscoelastic fluids-based microdevices for cell manipulation and apply them to extract blood plasma from blood with ultra-high purity (Lab Chip, 2016, 16(20): 3919-3928.). This work has attracted international interests due to its potential in cancer diagnostics and prognosis, as evidenced by reports of her discovery by worldwide media in 2017: Health Canal (United States); Technology Networks (United Kingdom); UOW (University of Wollongong) news (Australia); X-MOL (China); et al. This ground-breaking research has been selected as the cover page of Lab Chip. Her work of developing viscoelastic microfluidic devices for cell purification (Lab Chip, 2019, 19(17): 2811-2821.) was selected as the cover page of Lab Chip, and was listed as one of Lab Chip’s highest citing papers contributing to its Impact Factor 7.517 (with 19 alone in 2021). This novel platform technology has started to transform the way cells are identified and purified, and is also paving the way for addressing problems with microalgae contamination in industrial processes. In addition to the size-based cell manipulation, she also pioneered the area of shape-based separation techniques and applied this to the separation of cyanobacteria, demonstrating the ability to manipulate cells based on morphologies and with a size of >100 μm (Anal. Chem. 2021, 93, 37, 12648–12654). This is a revolutionary achievement opening opportunities and applications in research fields not yet employing microfluidic technologies. This work was featured as a cover page article and has been interviewed and reported by media X-MOL (China). Her review article on the recent progress of particle migration in viscoelastic fluid (Lab Chip. 2018 18 (4): 551-567.) was listed as Web of Science Highly Cited paper.
Works
Search Professor Dan Yuan’s works on UQ eSpace
2021
Journal Article
Perspective - what constitutes a quality analytical paper: microfluidics and flow analysis
Lee, Soo Min, Balakrishnan, Hari Kalathil, Yuan, Dan, Nai, Yi Heng and Guijt, Rosanne M. (2021). Perspective - what constitutes a quality analytical paper: microfluidics and flow analysis. Talanta Open, 4 100055, 1-5. doi: 10.1016/j.talo.2021.100055
2021
Journal Article
Investigation of viscoelastic focusing of particles and cells in a zigzag microchannel
Yuan, Dan, Yadav, Sharda, Ta, Hang T., Fallahi, Hedieh, An, Hongjie, Kashaninejad, Navid, Ooi, Chin Hong, Nguyen, Nam‐Trung and Zhang, Jun (2021). Investigation of viscoelastic focusing of particles and cells in a zigzag microchannel. Electrophoresis, 42 (21-22), 2230-2237. doi: 10.1002/elps.202100126
2021
Journal Article
Sheathless separation of cyanobacterial Anabaena by shape using viscoelastic microfluidics
Yuan, Dan, Yan, Sheng, Zhang, Jun, Guijt, Rosanne M., Zhao, Qianbin and Li, Weihua (2021). Sheathless separation of cyanobacterial Anabaena by shape using viscoelastic microfluidics. Analytical Chemistry, 93 (37), 12648-12654. doi: 10.1021/acs.analchem.1c02389
2021
Journal Article
Morphological indicator for directed evolution of euglena gracilis with a high heavy metal removal efficiency
Isozaki, Akihiro, Goda, Keisuke, Xu, Muzhen, Harmon, Jeffrey, Yuan, Dan, Yan, Sheng, Lei, Cheng, Hiramatsu, Kotaro, Zhou, Yuqi, Loo, Mun Hong and Hasunuma, Tomohisa (2021). Morphological indicator for directed evolution of euglena gracilis with a high heavy metal removal efficiency. Environmental Science and Technology, 55 (12), 7880-7889. doi: 10.1021/acs.est.0c05278
2021
Journal Article
Continuous microfluidic 3D focusing enabling microflow cytometry for single-cell analysis
Yan, Sheng and Yuan, Dan (2021). Continuous microfluidic 3D focusing enabling microflow cytometry for single-cell analysis. Talanta, 221 121401, 1-15. doi: 10.1016/j.talanta.2020.121401
2020
Journal Article
Modular off-chip emulsion generator enabled by a revolving needle
Zhang, Yuxin, Zhao, Qianbin, Yuan, Dan, Liu, Hangrui, Yun, Guolin, Lu, Hongda, Li, Ming, Guo, Jinhong, Li, Weihua and Tang, Shi-Yang (2020). Modular off-chip emulsion generator enabled by a revolving needle. Lab on a Chip, 20 (24), 4592-4599. doi: 10.1039/d0lc00939c
2020
Journal Article
Separation and enrichment of yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae by shape using viscoelastic microfluidics
Liu, Ping, Liu, Hangrui, Yuan, Dan, Jang, Daniel, Yan, Sheng and Li, Ming (2020). Separation and enrichment of yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae by shape using viscoelastic microfluidics. Analytical Chemistry, 93 (3), 1586-1595. doi: 10.1021/acs.analchem.0c03990
2020
Journal Article
Liquid metal composites with anisotropic and unconventional piezoconductivity
Yun, Guolin, Tang, Shi-Yang, Zhao, Qianbin, Zhang, Yuxin, Lu, Hongda, Yuan, Dan, Sun, Shuaishuai, Deng, Lei, Dickey, Michael D. and Li, Weihua (2020). Liquid metal composites with anisotropic and unconventional piezoconductivity. Matter, 3 (3), 824-841. doi: 10.1016/j.matt.2020.05.022
2020
Journal Article
Inertial microfluidic purification of floating cancer cells for drug screening and three-dimensional tumor models
Zhang, Jun, Chintalaramulu, Naveen, Vadivelu, Raja, An, Hongjie, Yuan, Dan, Jin, Jing, Ooi, Chin Hong, Cock, Ian Edwin, Li, Weihua and Nguyen, Nam-Trung (2020). Inertial microfluidic purification of floating cancer cells for drug screening and three-dimensional tumor models. Analytical Chemistry, 92 (17), 11558-11564. doi: 10.1021/acs.analchem.0c00273
2020
Journal Article
A review of secondary flow in inertial microfluidics
Zhao, Qianbin, Yuan, Dan, Zhang, Jun and Li, Weihua (2020). A review of secondary flow in inertial microfluidics. Micromachines, 11 (5) 461, 1-23. doi: 10.3390/MI11050461
2020
Journal Article
Intelligent image-activated cell sorting 2.0
Isozaki, Akihiro, Mikami, Hideharu, Tezuka, Hiroshi, Matsumura, Hiroki, Huang, Kangrui, Akamine, Marino, Hiramatsu, Kotaro, Iino, Takanori, Ito, Takuro, Karakawa, Hiroshi, Kasai, Yusuke, Li, Yan, Nakagawa, Yuta, Ohnuki, Shinsuke, Ota, Tadataka, Qian, Yong, Sakuma, Shinya, Sekiya, Takeichiro, Shirasaki, Yoshitaka, Suzuki, Nobutake, Tayyabi, Ehsen, Wakamiya, Tsubasa, Xu, Muzhen, Yamagishi, Mai, Yan, Haochen, Yu, Qiang, Yan, Sheng, Yuan, Dan, Zhang, Wei ... Goda, Keisuke (2020). Intelligent image-activated cell sorting 2.0. Lab on a Chip, 20 (13), 2263-2273. doi: 10.1039/d0lc00080a
2019
Journal Article
Liquid metal-filled magnetorheological elastomer with positive piezoconductivity
Yun, Guolin, Tang, Shi-Yang, Sun, Shuaishuai, Yuan, Dan, Zhao, Qianbin, Deng, Lei, Yan, Sheng, Du, Haiping, Dickey, Michael D. and Li, Weihua (2019). Liquid metal-filled magnetorheological elastomer with positive piezoconductivity. Nature Communications, 10 (1) 1300, 1-9. doi: 10.1038/s41467-019-09325-4
2019
Journal Article
Sheathless separation of microalgae from bacteria using a simple straight channel based on viscoelastic microfluidics
Yuan, Dan, Zhao, Qianbin, Yan, Sheng, Tang, Shi-Yang, Zhang, Yuxin, Yun, Guolin, Nguyen, Nam-Trung, Zhang, Jun, Li, Ming and Li, Weihua (2019). Sheathless separation of microalgae from bacteria using a simple straight channel based on viscoelastic microfluidics. Lab on a Chip, 19 (17), 2811-2821. doi: 10.1039/c9lc00482c
2019
Journal Article
Phase separation in liquid metal nanoparticles
Tang, Shi-Yang, Mitchell, David R. G., Zhao, Qianbin, Yuan, Dan, Yun, Guolin, Zhang, Yuxin, Qiao, Ruirui, Lin, Yiliang, Dickey, Michael D. and Li, Weihua (2019). Phase separation in liquid metal nanoparticles. Matter, 1 (1), 192-204. doi: 10.1016/j.matt.2019.03.001
2019
Journal Article
High-throughput production of uniformly sized liquid metal microdroplets using submerged electrodispersion
Zhang, Yuxin, Tang, Shi-Yang, Zhao, Qianbin, Yun, Guolin, Yuan, Dan and Li, Weihua (2019). High-throughput production of uniformly sized liquid metal microdroplets using submerged electrodispersion. Applied Physics Letters, 114 (15) 154101, 154101. doi: 10.1063/1.5086376
2019
Journal Article
Fundamentals of differential particle inertial focusing in symmetric sinusoidal microchannels
Zhang, Jun, Yuan, Dan, Zhao, Qianbin, Teo, Adrian J. T., Yan, Sheng, Ooi, Chin Hong, Li, Weihua and Nguyen, Nam-Trung (2019). Fundamentals of differential particle inertial focusing in symmetric sinusoidal microchannels. Analytical Chemistry, 91 (6), 4077-4084. doi: 10.1021/acs.analchem.8b05712
2019
Journal Article
High-throughput, off-chip microdroplet generator enabled by a spinning conical frustum
Tang, Shi-Yang, Wang, Kun, Fan, Kai, Feng, Zilong, Zhang, Yuxin, Zhao, Qianbin, Yun, Guolin, Yuan, Dan, Jiang, Lianmei, Li, Ming and Li, Weihua (2019). High-throughput, off-chip microdroplet generator enabled by a spinning conical frustum. Analytical Chemistry, 91 (5), 3725-3732. doi: 10.1021/acs.analchem.9b00093
2019
Journal Article
Dean-flow-coupled elasto-inertial particle and cell focusing in symmetric serpentine microchannels
Yuan, Dan, Sluyter, Ronald, Zhao, Qianbin, Tang, Shiyang, Yan, Sheng, Yun, Guolin, Li, Ming, Zhang, Jun and Li, Weihua (2019). Dean-flow-coupled elasto-inertial particle and cell focusing in symmetric serpentine microchannels. Microfluidics and Nanofluidics, 23 (3) 41, 1-9. doi: 10.1007/s10404-019-2204-3
2019
Journal Article
Functional liquid metal nanoparticles produced by liquid-based nebulization
Tang, Shi-Yang, Qiao, Ruirui, Lin, Yiliang, Li, Yuhuan, Zhao, Qianbin, Yuan, Dan, Yun, Guolin, Guo, Jinhong, Dickey, Michael D., Huang, Tony Jun, Davis, Thomas P., Kalantar-Zadeh, Kourosh and Li, Weihua (2019). Functional liquid metal nanoparticles produced by liquid-based nebulization. Advanced Materials Technologies, 4 (2) 1800420, 1-9. doi: 10.1002/admt.201800420
2019
Journal Article
Top sheath flow-assisted secondary flow particle manipulation in microchannels with the slanted groove structure
Zhao, Qianbin, Yuan, Dan, Tang, Shi-Yang, Yun, Guolin, Yan, Sheng, Zhang, Jun and Li, Weihua (2019). Top sheath flow-assisted secondary flow particle manipulation in microchannels with the slanted groove structure. Microfluidics and Nanofluidics, 23 (1) 6, 1-8. doi: 10.1007/s10404-018-2174-x
Funding
Current funding
Supervision
Availability
- Dr Dan Yuan is:
- Available for supervision
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Available projects
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Viscoelastic Microfluidics for Biomedical and Environmental Applications
Project summary: Use forces generated by fluids that are both viscous and elastic to help address challenges in biomedicine and the environment.
Supervision history
Current supervision
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Doctor Philosophy
Development of object manipulation techniques with viscoelastic fluids toward efficient environmental monitoring
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Alexander Klimenko
Media
Enquiries
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