Farzad Sekhavati

Iranian

Curriculum Vitae

Since 2011	PhD student in the group of Prof. Joachim Rädler, LMU Munich
2010 - 2011	PhD student in the group of Dr. Alexander Gigler, LMU Munich
2009 – 2010	MSc. Erasmus Mundus Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, Delft University of Technology (TUD), Delft, Netherlands
2008 - 2009	MSc. Erasmus Mundus Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, Chalmers University of Technology (CTH), Gothenburg, Sweden
	Master Thesis: “E-Coli properties under pressure in microchannel”
2005 - 2008	Double Major in Physics, Amirkabir Univeristy of Technology (AUT), Tehran
	Thesis title: “Quantitative study of nanopores arrangement in alumina membrane using Furrier transform analysis”
2003 – 2008	BSc. Mechanical Engineering, Amirkabir Univeristy of Technology (AUT), Tehran, Iran
	Bachelor Thesis: “Design and characterization of a micromotor for swimming microrobot”

Scholarships

Since 2010	Scholarship of the IDK-NBT (Elite Network of Bavaria)
2008 - 2010	Erasmus Mundus master scholarship

Research Project

In our project, we are developing a microfluidic structure for single cell studies of stem cell. For that we use PDMS and PEG-DMA as structural material. It has been shown that non of these materials are toxic to cell. This device has an array of micro-wells in size of cells (15-20 um) that is used as a compartment for single stem-cell for long-term experiments. Optical tweezers is another technique that will be implemented in microscope to detect the motion of cell as well as manipulate and move the cells around to the other well.
In initial stage we will use MEL-1 cell line. This is a modified human embryonic stem cell that can be cultivated in laboratory condition. Phase-contrast microscopy and fluorescent microscopy are used as two imaging techniques for long-term observation
In this project we expect to discover the development of stem-cell membrane by looking at its interaction with surface. In several-generation experiments we expect to see the point of differentiation of one stem-cell to a specified cell. In preliminary works we showed that our microfluidic devices are suitable for these experiments and have the properties that is needed to investigate stem cells.

Publications

J. Männik, F. Sekhavati, J. E. Keymer and C. Dekker:
“Bacteria in submicron channels and microvalves”,
Proc 14th International Conference on Miniaturized Systems for Chemistry and Life Sciences, Groningen, The Netherlands, 3-7 October 2010, p 1376-1378.

f.sekhavatilrz.uni-muenchen.de