'Microbubble' research wins Royal Society award

Links:

mecheng.ucl.ac.uk/" target="_self">UCL Mechanical Engineering

Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council

Scientists from UCL have won an award from the Royal Society for a research paper that shows how to produce 'microbubbles'.

Microbubbles are miniature bubbles of gas that can remain suspended in liquid for an extended period of time.

They have a variety of possible applications, including in medical imaging and diagnosis and targeted drug delivery.

The research paper written by Professor Mohan Edirisinghe, Dr Eleanor Stride and their former PhD student Uthumankandu Farook (from the Encapsulation Research Group, UCL Mechanical Engineering) won the inaugural Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) Journal of the Royal Society Interface Award.

Interface is a collaborative journal aimed at developing cross-disciplinary relationships between engineering and physical sciences and life sciences. 

The winning paper described how microbubbles could be prepared by the controlled co-flow of gas and liquid under an electric field - a method scalable for commercial use.


A panel of experts judged it to be the best article based on work funded by the EPSRC and published in the journal over the last five years.

The authors were presented with a prize of £5,000 plus a student educational travel award of £2,000.

Image: Professor Mohan Edirisinghe and Dr Eleanor Stride

---

UCL context

The Encapsulation Research Group at UCL Mechanical Engineering focuses on the development of electrically driven and/or microfluidic, multi-needle, commercially viable novel devices that have been designed, manufactured and tested to produce a new generation of loaded particles, bubbles and capsules at all scales. The products have a significant impact on the healthcare industry, patients, the food industry and consumers.

Related stories:
UCL student wins Royal Society of Medicine poster prize