University of California, Santa Barbara

Faculty Profile

Hyongsok (Tom) Soh

Professor

Mechanical Engineering
Materials

Hyongsok (Tom) Soh

Contacts

UCSB Department of Mechanical Engineering
Room 2231D, Engineering Sciences Building
Santa Barbara, CA 93106-5070

tel: (805) 893-7985
fax: (805) 893-8651
tsoh@engineering.ucsb.edu

Personal web site

Dielectrophoresis Activated Cell Sorter

Dielectrophoresis Activated Cell Sorter

Research Description

Our group has an active research program to develop innovative technologies in molecular diagnostics and therapeutics, for personalized medicine. Toward this goal, we currently focus on three research themes:

* Cell Sorting – develop advanced devices for isolating and separating rare target cells from complex samples;


* Biosensors – explore novel mechanisms or integrate multiple chemical functionalities for the quantitative detection of target molecules in complex samples;


* Rapid Directed Evolution – realize innovative methods to rapidly evolve synthetic molecular machines capable of performing complex functions

Research Groups

Biography

Dr. Soh received his B.S. with a double major in Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science with Distinction from Cornell University, and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University. Prior to joining UCSB in 2003, Dr. Soh served as the technical manager of MEMS Device Research Group at Bell Laboratories. His current research interests are in analytical biotechnology, especially in high throughput screening, directed evolution and integrated biosensors. He is Co-Director at the Center for Stem Cell Biology & Engineering and Associate Director of the California Nanosystems Institute (CNSI). He is the recipient of MIT Technology Review???s "TR 100" Award (2002), ONR Young Investigator Award (2004), Beckman Young Investigator Award (2005), ALA Innovator Award (2009), NIH Director???s TR01 Award (2009), John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship (2010), NIH Edward Nagy Award (2011), Garland Endowed Chairship at UCSB (2011), and Humboldt Research Fellowship (2012).

Affiliations

  • Biomolecular Science and Engineering Program
  • Institute for Collaborative Biotechnologies
  • California Nanosystems Institute
  • Co-Director, Center for Stem Cell Biology and Engineering, University of California at Santa Barbara

Awards/Honors

  • Guggenheim Fellowship, 2010
  • ALA Innovator Award, 2009
  • NIH Director's TR01 Award, 2009
  • National Academy of Engineering, Frontiers of Engineering Symposium, 2006
  • Beckman Young Investigator Award, 2005
  • Office of Naval Research (ONR) Young Investigator Award, 2004
  • MIT Technology Review – World’s Top 100 Young Innovator Award (TR100), 2002
  • Bell Labs President’s Award - Gold Medal (Team award), 2000
  • Samsung Thesis Competition - Gold Medal, 1997
  • Leland Edwards Fellowship at Stanford University., 1995

Selected Publications

See complete list of publications
  • Acoustophoretic Synchronization of Mammalian Cells in Microfluidics Channels, Analytical Chemistry, 82, 2010, 3094-3098, P. Thévoz, J. D. Adams, H. Shea, H. Bruus, and H. T. Soh, web link
  • Detection of Proteins in Serum via Micromagnetic Aptamer PCR (MAP) Technology, Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 49, 2010, 355-358, A. Csordas, A. E. Gerdon, J. D. Adams, J. Qian, S.S Oh, Y. Xiao, and H. T. Soh, web link
  • Quantitative Selection of DNA Aptamers through Microfluidic Selection and High Throughput Sequencing, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, Vol 107 No. 35, 2010, 15373-15378, M. Cho, Y. Xiao, J. Nie, R. Stewart, A. Csordas, S. S. Oh, J. Thomson, H. T. Soh, web link
  • An Electrochemical Sensor for Single Nucleotide Polymorphism Detection in Serum Based on a Triple-Stem DNA Probe, Journal of the American Chemical Society, 131, 2009, 15311-15316, Y. Xiao, X.H. Lou, T. Uzawa, K.J.I. Plakos, K.W. Plaxco, and H.T. Soh, web link
  • Continuous, Real-Time Monitoring of Cocaine in Undiluted Blood Serum via a Microfluidic Electrochemical Aptamer-Based Sensor, Journal of the American Chemical Societ, 131, 2009, 4262-4266, J. Swensen, Y. Xiao, B.S. Ferguson, A. Lubin, R. Lai, A.J Heeger, K.W. Plaxco, and H.T. Soh, web link
  • Fluorescence Detection of Single-Nucleotide Polymorphisms with a, Self-Complementary, Triple-Stem DNA Probe, Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 48, 2009, 4354-4358, Y. Xiao, K. J. I. Plakos, X. Lou, R. J. White, J. Qian, K. W. Plaxco, and H. T. Soh, web link
  • Integrated Acoustic and Magnetic Separation in Microfluidic Channels, Applied Physics Letters, 95, 2009, 254103, J. D. Adams, P. Thévoz, H. Shea, H. Bruus, and H. T. Soh, web link
  • Micromagnetic Selection of Aptamers in Microfluidic Channels, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, Vol 106 No. 9, 2009, 2989-2994, X.H. Lou, J. Qian, Y. Xiao, L. Viel, A. E. Gerdon, E. T. Lagally, P. Atzberger, T. M.Tarasow, A. J. Heeger, and H. T. Soh, web link
  • Multi-Target Magnetic Activated Cell Sorter (MT-MACS), Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, 105, 2008, 18165-18170, J.D. Adams, U. Kim, and H.T. Soh, web link
  • Marker Specific Sorting of Rare Cells Using Dielectrophoresis, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol 102 No. 44, 2005, 15757-15761, X.Hu, P. H. Bessette, J. Qian, C.D. Meinhart, P. S. Daugherty, and H. T. Soh, web link