Skip to main content
Soumya K. Srivastava, Assistant Professor
Microfluidics & Electrokinetics bioSeparation & Analysis (MESA) Laboratory

Soumya K. Srivastava has been an Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering in the Department of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering at West Virginia University since 2021. Before joining WVU, she was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemical & Biological Engineering at the University of Idaho (2013-2021) and Assistant Research Professor in the Gene and Linda Voiland School of Chemical Engineering and Bioengineering at Washington State University (2010-2013). She obtained her Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering at Mississippi State University in August 2010, M.S. from Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago in 2005, and B.S. from India in 2001. She enjoys traveling with her family and has visited more than 40 countries!

Research Focus

MESA laboratory primarily focuses on the study of microfluidic transport and the design of fluidic devices with applications in medicine, environment, food, and water. Our research group works on characterization, isolation, concentration, bioseparation, and detection techniques of nano- and micro-bioparticles. We manipulate the bioparticles via electrokinetic techniques: dielectrophoresis, electrophoresis, and electroosmosis. Dielectrophoresis (DEP) can employ both AC and DC electric field gradients to carry out high-resolution separation with these simple and easy-to-use devices.

Our technology can identify pathogens and abnormal cells in ~1 min at an extremely low cost, investigating and correlating subtle differences in pre-malignant states, pre-stem cell differentiation, and genetic, phenotypic, or histologic state. This capability can be distributed to low-resource settings, improving the health of millions. Our goal is to develop robust and rapid microfluidic-based techniques to offer an alternative to traditional bench-scale separation/purification processes. Our ultimate goal is to create portable and economical tools that mimic a "lab on a chip."

Device    pH measure      fabrication   student   device                                     Lab culture