Araci, Emre

Dr. Araci's background is in optics and microfluidics. He has been developing device technologies for continuous health monitoring for the last 13 years. He has several publications in prominent journals (e.g., Nature Medicine, Advanced Materials Technologies,  Lab on a Chip, etc.) and several patents in this area. He is the founder of Smartlens Inc., a company that develops contact lenses for glaucoma management, and completed a series A funding round in 2023. Dr. Araci's work on implantable microfluidic intraocular pressure sensors (Nature Medicine, 2014) was featured on several media platforms (e.g., ABC7, Forbes, etc.). He also designed and fabricated the world's smallest micromechanical valves for a new technology microfluidic very large-scale integration (mVLSI). The mVLSI technology has led to many continuing studies for the automation of biochemical measurements. He is currently an Associate Professor at the Bioengineering Department at Santa Clara University, which he joined in 2015. He received the prestigious NSF CAREER award in 2021 for his work on human movement-driven capillaric devices for physical rehabilitation management. 

Ph.D. Optical Sciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, 2010
M.Sc. Electrical Engineering, Ege University, Izmir, Turkey, 2002
B.S. Electrical Engineering, Ege University, Izmir Turkey, 1999

Microfluidic biosensors and biowearables, Capillaric device physics, Digital image correlation, Biophotonics

• BIOE174 and Lab, Microfabrication and microfluidics
• BIOE168 and Lab, Bioimaging and Biophotonics
• BIOE10, Introduction to Bioengineering
• BIOE194-196, Senior design project
• BIOE308, Wearable sensors and actuators for clinical applications

Araci lab works on the next-generation wearable movement sensors to help improve the lives of patients with musculoskeletal disorders and advance sports medicine. The group utilizes capillaric circuits designed to function as a micropump driven by human movement. Combining fluid physics with wearables and human biomechanics requires investigation of skin deformation characteristics, their relation to human movement, and their potential to control fluid flow. Araci and his team of undergraduate and graduate student researchers uses digital image correlation (DIC) to analyze skin strain field (SSF) and characterize large range of movements.

The capillaric sensor networks with electrical and image-based readouts are designed for real-time wireless data transfer and fluidic data storage, respectively, to reduce energy consumption and computational power required for complex movement analysis. The imperceptible skin patch developed in the Araci lab will be used to transmit the number of repetitions of the physical rehabilitation exercises with the correct form and intensity to a master mode such as a smart-watch or smart-phone.

• NSF CAREER Award for his work on human motion driven capillaric circuits for skin-mountable biosensors in 2021
• Researcher of the year at School of Engineering, SCU, 2022

1. Hudson Gasvoda, Nick Cmager, Ju Young Lee, Rana Altay, I. Emre Araci, “Integration of capillaric strain sensors towards digital recognition of human movements”. Sensors and Diagnostics, RSC, 2023.
2. Mengchu Li, Yushen Zhang, Hudson Gasvoda, Ju Young Lee, I. Emre Araci, Ulf Schlichtmann, Tsun-Ming Tseng, “Integrated Test Module Design for Microfluidic Large-Scale Integration, Transactions on Computer-Aided Design Of Integrated Circuits And Systems, IEEE, 2022.
3. Delaney Gray, Hudson Gasvoda, Alex Hadsell, Leilani Miller, Ebru Demir, I. Emre Araci, “ Needle in a chip for automated microinjection of Caenorhabditis elegans”, Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering, 2022.
4. Laura Rivas Yepes, Ebru Demir, Ju Young Lee, Ruopeng Sun, Matthew W. Smuck, Ismail Emre Araci, “Skin mountable capillaric strain sensor with ultra-high sensitivity and direction specificity”, Advanced Materials Technologies, 2020.
5. Oliver Silverberg, B. Hosoume, N. Trivedi, C. Tisch, D. Plascencia, G. Mishler, E. Demir, On Shun Pak, Ismail Emre Araci, “Realization of a Push-Me-Pull-You swimmer at low Reynolds numbers”, Bioinspiration and Biomimetics, 2020.
6. Ismail Emre Araci, Sevda Agaoglu, Ju Young Lee, Laura Rivas Yepes, Priscilla Diep, Matthew Martini, Andrew Schmidt “Flow stabilization in wearable microfluidic sensors enables noise suppression”, Lab on a Chip, 2019.
7. Daniel Freitas, Amy Mongersun, Huong Chau, Ismail Emre Araci, “Tunable soft-lithography molds enable rapid-prototyping of multi-height channels for microfluidic large-scale integration”, Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering, 2019.
8. Sevda Agaoglu, Priscilla Diep, Samudyatha Shweta, Matthew Martini, Murat Baday, Ismail Emre Araci, “Ultra-sensitive microfluidic wearable strain sensor for intraocular pressure monitoring”, Lab on a Chip, 2018.
9. Tsun-Ming Tseng, Mengchu Li, Daniel Freitas, Travis McAuley, Bing Li, Tsung-Yi Ho, Ismail Emre Araci and Ulf Schlichtmann, “Columba 2.0: A Co-Layout Synthesis Tool for Continuous-Flow Microfluidic Biochips” Transactions on Computer-Aided Design Of Integrated Circuits And Systems, IEEE, 2017.
10. Sevda Agaoglu, Michael Robles, Connor Smith, Stephen R. Quake, I. Emre Araci, “The effect of pre-polymer/cross-linker storage on the elasticity and reliability of PDMS microfluidic devices”, Microfluidics and Nanofluidics, 2017.
11. Ismail Emre Araci, Michael Robles, Stephen R. Quake, “A reusable microfluidic device provides continuous measurement capability and improves the detection limit of digital biology”, Lab on a Chip, 2016
12. Pop, P.; Ismail Emre Araci; Chakrabarty, K., “Continuous-Flow Biochips: Technology, Physical Design Methods and Testing”, Design & Test, 2015.
13. Artem Lyubimov, Thomas Murray, Antoine Koehl, Ismail Emre Araci, Monarin Uervirojnangkoorn, Oliver Zeldin, Aina Cohen, S. Michael Soltis, Elizabeth Baxter, Aaron Brewster, Nicholas Sauter, Axel Brunger and James Berger*, “Capture and X-ray diffraction studies of protein microcrystals in a microfluidic trap array”, Acta Crystallogr D Biol Crystallogr. 2015.
14. Ismail Emre Araci, Baolong Su, Stephen R. Quake, Yossi Mandel, “An Implantable Microfluidic Device for Self Monitoring of Intraocular Pressure”, Nature Medicine, 2014.
15. Ismail Emre Araci, Philip Brisk; “Recent developments in microfluidic large scale integration”, Current Opinions in Biotechnology, 2014.
16. Ismail Emre Araci, Stephen R. Quake; “Microfluidic very large scale integration (mVLSI) with integrated micromechanical valves”, Lab on a Chip, 2012.
17. Jayan Thomas, P. Gangopadhyay, Ismail Emre Araci, R.A. Norwood, N. Peyghambarian; “Nanoimprinting by melt processing: An easy technique to fabricate versatile nanostructures”, Advanced Materials, 2011.

1. Caroline Barbar Askar, Nick Cmager, Rana Altay, I. Emre Araci, “Strain-driven power-free pumping via asymmetric microchannel structure for microfluidic wearable applications”, Poster presentation in BMES for undergraduate research, Seattle, 2023
2. Rana Altay, Carolina Barbar Askar, Hudson Gasvoda, I. Emre Araci, “Reverse and hybrid liquid displacement for strain driven flow in microfluidic wearables”, Poster presentation in BMES for late breaking research, Seattle, 2023
3. Gianna Gathman, Justin Culpepper, Katie Neighors, Hudson Gasvoda, I. Emre Araci, “Design and model of a viscoelastic rectifier for efficient micropumping in skin mountable capillarics”. MicroTAS, Palm Springs, California, 2021.
4. Tsun-Ming Tseng, Mengchu Li, Amy Mongersun, Daniel Freitas, Bing Li, Tsung-Yi Ho, Ismail Emre Araci and Ulf Schlichtmann, “Columba S: A Scalable Co-Layout Design Automation Tool for Microfluidic Large-Scale Integration” Design automation conference, San Francisco, 2018.
5. Ismail Emre Araci, Pop, Paul; Chakrabarty, Krishnendu, “Microfluidic very large-scale integration for biochips: Technology, testing and fault-tolerant design”, Test Symposium (ETS), 20th IEEE European,2015.
6. Ismail Emre Araci, Michael Robles, Stephen R. Quake, “Digital and Multiplexed Protein Quantification by Microfluidic Very Large Scale Integration” IEEE, EMBS, MNM Conference, 2014.
7. Ismail Emre Araci, Baolong Su, Stephen Quake, Yossi Mandel, “Extending the lifetime of implantable intraocular pressure sensor“. IEEE, EMBS, Healthcare Innovation Conference, 2014.