Chia-Chi Ho

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR
 

B.S. (CHE), National Taiwan University, 1996
Ph.D. (ChE) University of Delaware, 2001

Phone: (513) 556-2438; FAX: (513) 556-3473
E-Mail: cho@alpha.che.uc.edu

 

RESEARCH INTERESTS

 

CURRENT RESEARCH TOPICS

Membrane Separations

Membrane processes are widely used in both the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries for sterile filtration of fermentation media, initial harvest of therapeutic products, and purification of buffers and proteins. The most critical factor limiting the application of membrane processes is its low selectivity for proteins with compatible size. A second important limiting factor of membrane processes is fouling caused by the irreversible chemical and physical interaction between the various components in solution being filtered and the membrane itself. Membrane fouling causes a decay in filtrate flux and an alteration in membrane selectivity. These problems increase progressively throughout the filtration process and eventually require either extensive cleaning or replacement of the membrane. Our research focuses on developing high selectivity and low fouling membranes through modification of the membrane surface chemistry and pore morphology.

Microsystems for Cell Biology

Microfabrication techniques are widely used in the electronic industry to generate small features with size between 1-100 mm. This size range is on the same order of a single cell, thus, these microsystems are well suited for studying cell behavior. Cells in the environment are in contact with the culture solution and extracellular matrix. They sense the signals in the environment and activate signal transduction pathways to alter their behavior. The objective of our research is to utilize micropatterned surfaces and microfluidic systems to control the local environment around cells. We engineer these new and powerful micro-scale tools to study and manipulate biological systems. Our projects include the use of micropatterned surfaces to control the cell size and shape and microfluidic systems to generate sharp chemical gradients across the width of a single cell.

 

Postdoctoral Position Available  

 

RECENT PUBLICATIONS