BME7900 Seminar: Dr. Wilbur A. Lam (Emory)

Engineering Microsystems to Investigate the Mechanobiology of Blood in Health and Disease

Blood is fundamentally mechanical in nature, comprising diverse cellular subtypes navigating complex hydrodynamic environments. Perturbations in these biomechanical dynamics directly drive hematologic and cardiovascular pathologies. This presentation highlights our lab's multidisciplinary approach—combining microfluidics, biophysics, and hematology—to bridge microscale mechanobiology with clinical diagnostic and therapeutic translation.

First, we explore how bioengineered microfluidic systems model pathological mechanobiolohy. In sickle cell disease, we describe how reduced erythrocyte deformability in and of itself causes aberrant cell margination toward microvascular walls. Computational simulations and endothelialized microfluidic systems pioneered by our laboratory reveal that marginated, stiffened red blood cells induce localized wall shear stress fluctuations, triggering pro-inflammatory endothelial gene expression via mechanotransduction—a mechanism distinct from the canonical microvascular obstruction that oversimplifies sickle cell pathophysiology.

Next, using advanced hydrogel-based microvasculature-on-a-chip platforms, we investigate long-term vascular dysfunction, endothelial barrier permeability, and thrombo-inflammation over weeks to months, demonstrating how targeted therapeutics like tPA facilitate clot resolution to restore endothelial function after thrombosis. Our lab has also developed "platelet contraction cytometry" based on single-cell biomechanics. Leveraging this method, we observed that in immune thrombocytopenia (ITP), platelet contractile force serves as a functional biophysical biomarker that predicts bleeding risk far more effectively than traditional clinical diagnostics.

Finally, we demonstrate the clinical translation of these engineering approaches into accessible, point-of-care and home-based diagnostics. These include an FDA-cleared colorimetric home test and a non-invasive, smartphone app-based algorithm that measures hemoglobin levels from fingernail images without the need for blood sampling. Deployed globally and used over 3 million times, these digital tools enable real-time public health surveillance and decentralized patient monitoring.

Bio: Wilbur A. Lam, M.D., Ph.D., is the W. Paul Bowers Research Chair and Professor of Pediatrics and Biomedical Engineering at Emory University and Georgia Tech as well as a clinical pediatric hematologist/oncologist at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. He is also Associate Dean of Innovation and Vice Provost for Entrepreneurship at Emory University School of Medicine and Emory University, respectively. His laboratory’s research interests involve developing microsystems and microfluidic technologies to advance our fundamental understanding of the biophysics of hematologic and oncologic processes and diseases. With an interest in patient-operated diagnostics, the Lam Lab is also dedicated to translating their technologies as novel solutions to enable and empower patients to more easily monitor their own diseases at home and in the global health and low resource settings. Dr. Lam is also Co-Director of the Pediatric Technology Center at Children’s and is co-principal investigator of the NIH-funded Atlanta Center for Microsystems Engineered Point-of-Care Technologies (ACME POCT), which serves as the national test verification center for the NIH Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics (RADx) initiative during the global pandemic and beyond. Among numerous accolades, Dr. Lam has been elected into the National Academy of Medicine, the American Society of Clinical Investigation, and the Association of American Physicians, is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, and the National Academy of Inventors, named an Emerging Investigator by the journal Lab on a Chip, and is recipient of an NSF Career Award as well as the American Society of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology’s Frank A. Oski Memorial Lectureship Award, the Lab on a Chip Pioneers of Miniaturization Lectureship Award, and an Emerging Investigator Award by the NIH.