Dario Carugo receives an EPSRC photography award
New Frontiers Fellow, Dr Dario Carugo, has won a second prize in the Innovation category of the 2016 EPSRC Science Photography Competition for a microscope image of ultrasonically induced microstreaming.
Dario joined the University in January 2016 as a New Frontiers Fellow, and his research focuses on the development of microfluidic technologies for therapeutic applications.
One aspect of his research deals with the use of ultrasound waves to manipulate and stimulate biological cells and microorganisms, for applications encompassing cancer therapy, detection of pathogens, and treatment of bacterial infections or other non-malignant diseases.
The winning photography was taken whilst he worked at his former laboratory at the University of Oxford (Institute of Biomedical Engineering), on an EPSRC-funded research project led by Professor Eleanor Stride. It shows fluid streamlines generated by a gas microbubble exposed to an ultrasound wave. Upon ultrasound excitation, microbubbles undergo volumetric oscillations which generate a flow of the immediate surrounding fluid in the form of counter-rotating vortices.
This can be potentially employed as a mechanical means to efficiently deliver drugs through tissues or biofilms, or to disrupt bacterial layers. Dario has developed microfluidic systems in order to observe and study these unique physical phenomena using microscopy techniques.
The EPSRC Science Photography Competition aims to support excellence and promote the benefits of outstanding UK engineering and physical sciences.