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Contact:
Paul Li, 604.291.5956, paulli@sfu.ca
Carol Thorbes, Media & PR, 604.291.3035; cthorbes@sfu.ca

Paul Li’s tiny lab-on-a-biochip has caught the attention of the chemical and pharmaceutical industry. A biochip is a collection of miniaturized test sites arranged on a solid substrate that permits many tests to be performed at the same time. Li, an assistant professor of chemistry at Simon Fraser University, uses his invention to study the medicinal properties of compounds he has extracted from herbs.

Li, a Burnaby resident, designed and fabricated the biochip lab to make single cell analysis a reality. The lab is only half the size of a credit card, yet has channels for separation and analysis of individual bioactive herbal ingredients, and a chamber to test the effect of individual ingredients on a human or animal cancer cell.

Li’s invention is significant to the pharmaceutical industry and complementary medicine. The latter faces rigorous drug testing to comply with government regulation. In the March 25, 2004 web issue of Lab on a Chip, a chemical journal, peer scientists flagged the journal’s article about Li’s microfluidic chip as a hot item to read. The cover of the journal’s June issue also featured an image of Li’s invention: the single-cell fluorescence utility chip. Another journal, Chemical Sciences, highlighted Li’s invention in its May 2004 issue.

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Websites:
Lab on a Chip article: www.rsc.org/is/journals/current/loc/loc_hot.htm.
Chemical Sciences article: www.rsc.org/is/journals/current/chemscience/CH0040500C33.htm