Many of the Di Carlo Lab’s current technologies grew from foundational work in microfluidics, biomaterials, cell mechanics, and microscale physics. These research areas established principles and platforms that continue to influence the lab’s work in lab-on-a-particle systems, automated science, and distributed diagnostics.
The Di Carlo Lab pioneered the use of fluid inertia in microfluidic systems to focus, align, separate, and organize cells and particles in continuous flow. This work helped establish inertial microfluidics as a field and contributed to technologies for rare cell isolation, cytometry, image-activated sorting, and particle manipulation.
The lab developed high-throughput approaches to measure physical properties of cells, including deformability and contractility, as functional indicators of cell state and disease. These advances contributed to deformability cytometry, IntelliSep, and FLECS force-sensing surfaces that were commercialized through Forcyte Biotechnologies.
The lab developed microporous annealed particle biomaterials that can be injected or molded into tissues, creating interconnected scaffolds for tissue integration, regeneration, and localized therapy. This work contributed to the foundation for Tempo Therapeutics and continues to influence regenerative medicine applications.
Foundational work in lab-on-a-particle systems, ferrofluid droplets, amplification assays, and single-entity measurement helped shape the lab’s current directions in distributed diagnostics and accessible single-cell technologies.