GitHub repository: DracusC/Development-of-a-simulation-framework-for-digital-microfluidic-biochips
Primary language: C#
Created: 2022-02-06T11:59:16Z
Description: In our research group, we currently work on the software, firmware, and hardware development related to digital microfluidic biochips. Digital microfluidic biochips allow the execution of biological and chemical protocols on a chip-scaled device delivering cost and performance advantages over the traditional benchtop wet lab processes. Computer-based simulation can benefit such systems by allowing a user to test biochemical protocols before running the real experiments. In addition, the simulator can also be used to assist users during protocol execution. The project consists of developing a simulation engine for the digital microfluidic platform currently under development at DTU Compute. The project tackles three main aspects of the simulator: (1) the simulation engine, (2) the graphical user interface, and (3) the mathematical models (analytical or stochastic) capturing physical and biochemical behaviors. Overall, the simulator should have the capability to simulate the behavior of the biochip and of the droplets using interacting models for the droplets and for biochip actuators and sensing elements. The development of entry-level models such as droplet volume, vicinity interaction, temperature gradients, etc. is part of the project. In addition, the simulator should support future plug-in of more refined behavioral models and offer handles for in-droplet reaction kinetics simulation. The simulator graphical user interface presents the simulation state to the user and manages the user interaction during simulation. The entire solution should be able to be integrated with the existing framework. A comparison between the simulated and the real behavior of a protocol running on the biochip can be used as the main evaluation metric of the simulator. This project targets a group of three students