Jung Da-hyun is a reporter at The Korea Times, covering social issues in Korea, including foreign residents, education, environment and politics. Driven by a deep interest in people’s stories, she focuses on investigative and feature reporting through direct interviews and field coverage. She received the Amnesty International Korea Media Award for her “Deepfake Crisis at Schools” series. Reach her at dahyun08@koreatimes.co.kr. Always open to hearing your stories.
Chonnam Nat'l University microfluidics study features on cover of leading journal
The main campus building of Chonnam National University in Gwangju / Courtesy of Chonnam National University
By Jung Da-hyun
A research team at Chonnam National University has drawn international attention after its microfluidics study was featured as the cover paper of the 25th anniversary issue of a leading scientific journal.
According to the university Wednesday, the team led by Park Jin-soo, a professor in the university’s School of Mechanical Engineering, conducted the international joint research with scientists from Germany’s Technische Universitat Ilmenau.
The study appeared on the cover of Lab on a Chip, an international journal published by the U.K.-based Royal Society of Chemistry.
Building on years of research in microfluidics, which examines how fluids behave at microscopic scales, Park’s team investigated how biological particles such as cells, bacteria and microalgae move and interact in fluid environments.
Composite image showing authors of a research journal paper on microfluidics, including Park Jin-soo, left, professor at Chonnam National University’s School of Mechanical Engineering / Courtesy of Chonnam National University
Many earlier studies treated biological particles as perfectly spherical when conducting theoretical or computational analyses. Yet such assumptions often failed to align with results observed in experiments and clinical settings.
To address this gap, the researchers focused on the fact that most biological particles are not spherical. The study found that ellipsoidal particles with flattened or elongated shapes exhibit distinct rotational motions in fluid flow, including kayaking, tumbling and log-rolling.
The team showed that these hydrodynamic behaviors can be used to separate biological particles according to their shape, even when they share similar size and density, presenting the principle systematically for the first time.
The findings point to new possibilities for microfluidic technologies across a range of biomedical and biotechnology fields, including early disease detection through liquid biopsy, cell therapy manufacturing and the production of biofuels and biomaterials using microalgae.
The study also offers design guidelines for microfluidic platforms that can optimize cell separation for different applications, providing practical insights for both researchers and industry.