Microfluidics in One Day: Physics, Fabrication, and Functional Devices
Jacques Fattaccioli
Microfluidics scholar & founder
Microfluidics is learnable in a day — if taught by someone who builds it.
Most researchers encounter microfluidics the hard way: a paper references a chip, a collaborator hands over a protocol, and suddenly you're troubleshooting bonding failures or droplet instability with no clear framework to reason from.
This workshop exists to short-circuit that process.
In one intensive day, you'll build the physical intuition, fabrication literacy, and experimental vocabulary that usually takes months of lab trial-and-error to acquire. The content is drawn directly from active research — droplet microfluidics, single-cell encapsulation, biomimetic devices — taught by someone who designs, fabricates, and publishes with these tools every week.
Whether you're a PhD student starting a microfluidics project, a postdoc expanding your toolkit, or an R&D engineer evaluating lab-on-a-chip solutions, you'll leave with a coherent mental model of how microfluidic systems work, why they fail, and how to design them with intent.
No prior microfabrication experience required. Curiosity and a concrete research or engineering challenge are enough.
What you’ll learn
Build the physical intuition and hands-on fluency to design and troubleshoot microfluidic systems — from first principles to working device.
Apply Reynolds, Péclet, and capillary numbers to real device design
Identify when surface forces dominate and how to exploit them
Avoid design mistakes that only make sense at larger scales
Compare PDMS, glass, and thermoplastic workflows side by side
Understand bonding strategies and surface activation trade-offs
Know what's achievable without a cleanroom
Map squeezing, dripping, and jetting regimes to device geometry
Select surfactants based on interface chemistry, not habit
Tune flow rates and pressures for stable, monodisperse emulsions
Match detection modality to throughput and sensitivity requirements
Set up fluorescence readout on standard or compact microscopes
Extract fabrication and flow parameters from methods sections
Identify transferable vs. lab-specific elements of published protocols
Translate published designs into your own experimental context
Diagnose leaks, delamination, clogging, and droplet instability
Build a failure-mode checklist grounded in physical reasoning
Develop habits that reduce trial-and-error in device development
Workshop agenda
What changes at small scales
The physics of miniaturization: Reynolds number, surface-to-volume ratio, capillary forces, diffusion dominance. Why intuitions from bench-scale fail. Dimensional analysis as a design tool.
Fabrication
Soft lithography and PDMS: the standard route and its limits. Alternative substrates (glass, thermoplastics, NOA). Bonding strategies, surface chemistry post-fabrication. What you can realistically m
Flow control and droplet generation
Pressure-driven vs. syringe-pump actuation. Droplet formation regimes (squeezing, dripping, jetting). Surfactant choice and interface stabilization. Passive vs. active control.
Detection and readout
Fluorescence detection on-chip: widefield, confocal, and compact setups.
Application and Integration
Single-cell encapsulation and analysis. Droplet-based screening. Organ-on-chip and biomimetic geometries. From prototype to translational device — where the field is heading.
Q&A / case study discussion
Participants bring their own use case; collective troubleshooting and design critique.
Learn directly from Jacques
Jacques Fattaccioli
Microfluidic designer for biological questions
Who this workshop is for
PhD student or postdoc launching a microfluidics project, needing a fast, rigorous entry point to avoid months of costly trial and error.
R&D engineer evaluating lab-on-a-chip solutions for diagnostics or screening, who needs real fluency before committing to a platform.
Life scientist adding microfluidics to an existing toolkit to scale down assays or reach single-cell resolution.
Prerequisites
Basic fluid mechanics and chemistry literacy
Participants need basic physics and chemistry literacy to engage with quantitative reasoning — no fabrication experience required.
What's included
Live sessions
Learn directly from Jacques Fattaccioli in a real-time, interactive format.
Lifetime access
Go back to course content and recordings whenever you need to.
Community of peers
Stay accountable and share insights with like-minded professionals.
Certificate of completion
Share your new skills with your employer or on LinkedIn.
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