Research Overview

The Living Devices Lab is focused on building benchtop systems that mimic human disease outside the human body. We use microfluidics and microfabrication to create engineered tissues in which we control biological components and transport processes at the length scale that is relevant to physiology and pathology. We believe these cutting-edge tools will help us elucidate fundamental mechanisms of disease, improve disease diagnosis, and develop new therapies.

Currently, we are working to better understand how treatments and therapies can improve the lives of individuals with sickle cell anemia, to learn how to stop tumor cells from spreading around the body and causing metastasis, and to develop platforms that can be used to develop new therapies for a wide range of diseases.

• BS, Physics, North Carolina State University, 2001
• PhD, Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara, 2007
• Postdoctoral Fellow, Laboratory for Multiscale Regenerative Technologies, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2007-2012

Selected Publications

DK Wood, A Soriano, L Mahadevan, JM Higgins, and SN Bhatia. A biophysical indicator of vaso-occlusive risk in sickle cell disease. Sci Transl Med 4, 123ra26 (2012). doi:10.1126/scitranslmed.3002738.

CY Li, DK Wood, CM Hsu, R Langer, and SN Bhatia. DNA-templated assembly of droplet-derived PEG microtissues. Lab Chip 11, 2967 (2011) doi:10.1039/C1LC20318E.

DK Wood, DM Weingeist, SN Bhatia, and BP Engelward. Single cell trapping and dna damage analysis using microwell arrays. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 107, 10008 (2010) doi:10.1073/pnas.1004056107.

DK Wood, MV Requa, and AN Cleland. Microfabricated high-throughput electronic particle detector. Rev Sci Inst 78, 104301 (2007) doi:10.1063/1.2794230.

DK Wood, GB Braun, J-L Fraikin, LJ Swenson, NO Reich, and AN Cleland. A feasible approach to all-electronic digital labeling and readout for cell identification. Lab Chip 7, 469 (2007) doi:10.1039/B616442K.

G Braun, K Inagaki, RA Estabrook, DK Wood, E Levy, AN Cleland, GF Strouse, and NO Reich. Gold nanoparticle decoration of dna on silicon. Langmuir 21, 10699 (2005) doi:10.1021/la0515367.

DK Wood, SH Oh, SH Lee, HT Soh, and AN Cleland. High-bandwidth radio frequency coulter counter. Appl Phys Lett 87, 184106 (2005) doi:10.1063/1.2125111.

DK Wood, KK Ni, DR Schmidt, and AN Cleland. Submicron giant magnetoresistive sensors for biological applications. Sensor Actuat A-Phys 120, 1 (2005) doi:10.1016/j.sna.2004.10.035.