Dr. Arum Han, professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Texas A&M University, was named editor-in-chief of the journal Biomedical Microdevices, alongside Dr. Alessandro Grattoni with the Houston Methodist Research Institute and Houston Methodist Hospital. Biomedical Microdevices is a leading journal that discusses micro/nanodevices used in biomedical applications.
The journal is published by the publisher platform, Springer and was founded as a scientific journal dedicated to the dissemination of new scientific discoveries and development in the field of micro- and nanotechnologies applied to medicine. Topics include the design, characterization, testing, modeling and clinical validation of microfabricated systems, as well as their integration on-chip and in larger functional units.
Since its inaugural issue in 1998, Biomedical Microdevices has been a reference journal in the field of micro/nanodevices and has contributed to shaping this area of research. To date, 106 issues comprising more than 1800 articles have been published.
Han is a Chancellor’s Enhancing Development and Generating Excellence in Scholarship Fellow and the Presidential Impact Fellow of Texas A&M. He also holds a joint appointment in the Department of Biomedical Engineering and is a graduate faculty member of the Texas A&M Health Science Center, faculty of the Texas A&M Institute for Neuroscience and faculty of Texas A&M’s toxicology program.
Han’s research focuses on the development of microfluidic, lab-on-a-chip and organ-on-a-chip systems that enable unique biological experiments at high throughput and high accuracy, which can then be adopted by the broad bio/medical science community. He has pioneered the area of high-throughput microfluidics for microbiology applications and has been applying these technologies to synthetic biology, host-pathogen interactions, infectious disease and microbial bioproduction applications. His research has been funded by a variety of sources including government agencies such as the National Institutes of Health and philanthropic foundations such as the Gates Foundation.
One of his key accomplishments has been the development of technologies that enable complex multi-step biological assays involving mammalian cells, microorganisms and viruses to be conducted in high-throughput microfluidics format. He has also pioneered the area of organ-on-a-chip systems for feto-maternal interfaces and preterm birth research and is applying these micro-physiological system models to new therapeutic development against preterm birth.