Special BE Seminar – Nate J. Cira, “Simple Fluidic Tools for Combinatorial Experiments on Complex Systems”

Engineering and understanding complex systems increasingly depend on the ability to perform large numbers of controlled experiments. Existing fluidic tools often limit the adaptability of experiments and impose significant time and cost burdens, creating barriers to high-throughput workflows. Here we present Surface Patterned Omniphobic Tiles (SPOTs), a simple, scalable platform that uses engineered surface geometries and omniphobic coatings to precisely meter and manipulate droplets through capillary forces with no pumps, valves, or robotics required. Each SPOTs device runs hundreds to thousands of independent microscale reactions in parallel, spanning volumes from nanoliters to microliters, with excellent reproducibility across diverse liquid types. In this talk, I will highlight a constellation of projects related to the development, refinement, and application of this platform to address biomedical research questions including optimizing enzyme kinetics, screening antimicrobial combinations, establishing nutrient preferences, and genotyping isolates. By uniting precision, accessibility, and versatility, SPOTs allow researchers to rapidly prototype, test, and iterate experiments, expanding the reach of high-throughput experimentation and enabling data-rich discovery across disciplines.

Dr. Nate J. Cira is an Assistant Professor in the Meinig School of Biomedical Engineering at Cornell University, where he leads the Cira Lab. His research combines microscale fluid physics and device engineering to develop high-throughput experimental tools.

Before joining Cornell, Dr. Cira launched his independent research program as a Rowland Fellow at the Rowland Institute at Harvard University. He earned his Ph.D. and M.S. in Bioengineering from Stanford University, where he conducted his thesis work in the Quake Lab, and holds B.S. degrees in Biomedical Engineering, Biochemistry, Microbiology, Biology, and Molecular Biology from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Dr. Cira’s work has been published in Nature, PNAS, Physical Review Letters, and Lab on a Chip, and has attracted attention from The New York Times, Scientific American, and other public-facing media outlets. His research program is supported by the NIH through an R35 MIRA award.

Dr. Cira’s commitment to education has been recognized with the Canaan Family Award for Excellence in Academic Advising, and the Sonny Yau Excellence in Teaching Award. His trainees have gone on to become Rhodes, Gates Cambridge, and Knight-Hennessy Scholars, as well as faculty members and industry innovators.