Govind Kaigala 
contact information
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Professional Associations
Professional Associations: American Chemical Society (ACS) | Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) | Swiss Chemical Society (SCS)profile
microfluidics ♦ lab-on-a-chip ♦ scanning probes ♦ biological interfaces ♦ molecular diagnostics ♦ personalized medicine
Current activities
Govind Kaigala is currently a Research Staff Member in the Science & Technology department of IBM Research–Zurich.
His research is aligned within Precision Diagnostics where he leads activities on a liquid scanning probe technology — Microfluidic probe (MFP) — and is championing new concepts and thinking on:
♦ microfluidics in the “open” space
♦ tissue microprocessing.
His work has led to new ways to interact with tissue & cellular constructs, and resulted in a distinct class of molecular methods
♦ micro-immunohistochemistry (μIHC)
♦ micro-fluorescent in situ hybridization (μFISH)
♦ spatialyse.
These molecular methods leverage the unique physics of fluidics and chemistry at the micrometer length scales. Such compartmentalization, spatio-temporal analysis, and electrokinetic concentration/separation methodologies are now being applied to query heterogeneity, to alter microenvironments, and to perform bio-patterning.
Research interests
He applies and leverages micro/nano-technologies for chemical & biomolecule analysis to realize new analytical tools and assays. These topics encompass certain aspects of nano-biotechnology. His interests in microfluidic approaches include:
♦ hydrodynamics
♦ eletrokinetics
♦ compartmentalization.
Govind is passionate about personalized medicine, quantitative biology and translational clinical/medical research.
Selected metrics
He has authored and co-authored 50 peer-reviewed journal publications, 4 book chapters, 1 book (edited), 70 conference proceedings and abstracts and 35 patents.
Govind Kaigala is the recipient of several IBM awards, including Research Division Accomplishment Awards (2014 & 2017) and named "Master Inventor" in 2018. He has also received the Horizon Alumni Award from the University of Alberta, Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada's (NSERC) PGS & PDF. He is a J.N. Tata Endowment Fellow and a Senior Member of IEEE.In addition to IBM and other industrial engagements, Govind’s work is supported by the European Research Council (ERC), the European Union, and SystemsX.ch Swiss National Science Foundation.
Prior to joining IBM
Govind Kaigala was a postdoctoral fellow at the Microfluidics Laboratory in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Stanford University, and at the Stanford Medical School, USA. He received both his Ph.D. and M.Eng. degrees from the University of Alberta, Canada, for work done in the Depts. of Electrical Engineering and Experimental Oncology (Cross Cancer Institute). Prior to his doctoral studies, he was a hardware design engineer working on the design of fault-tolerant optical communication networks.
Biosketch
Selected EU/SNF projects (Govind Kaigala PI)
| BioProbe | uFluidX | Virtual Vials | BioProbe-PIT | |||
| EU ERC Project | ♦ | Systems X Project | ♦ | EU-ITN (with Technion) | ♦ | EU ERC PoC Project |
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