PhD candidates, Anu Kaushik and Alex Trick, won the Dolomite/Lab-on-a-Chip Video Competition at the 2017 International Conference on Miniaturized Systems for Chemistry and Life Sciences (MicroTAS) for their rap parody music video describing their work on droplet microfluidics. The annual video award competition recognizes short videos that are scientifically or educationally focused that are also fun, artistic, or surprising.

Droplet microfluidics is a technology used to process and study liquid samples in incredibly small volumes. Kaushik and Trick, students in Jeff Tza-Huei Wang’s lab, use this method to analyze tissue samples one cell at a time. By studying samples one cell at a time, researchers are able to detect minute details in cells, for example, a rare and small genetic mutation, that would otherwise be difficult to study or detect in bulk sample sizes.