Alison Bick

I'm a microfluidics PhD and medical device engineer who builds tools to test and iterate faster, turning early ideas into validated devices.

Without obstaclePacked droplets break apart as they squeeze into the narrow constriction. Drops that will break are shown in red, and stay red as the two pieces they split into.

With obstacleAn obstacle placed upstream (striped circle) lets droplets rearrange first. At the optimal obstacle placement, break-up decreases by about 1000×.

Each droplet can hold its own reaction, such as a single cell or a chemical assay. To screen what's inside, droplets flow in single file so each can be measured one at a time. Packing droplets tightly speeds this up, but tightly packed droplets break apart as they squeeze into a narrow constriction, causing inaccurate measurements. My PhD research at Stanford focused on reducing droplet break-up. One way I did this was by adding an optimally placed obstacle upstream of the constriction (PNAS, 2021).

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About

I'm a Staff Mechanical Engineer at Johnson & Johnson MedTech, where I work on the camera and visualization system for OTTAVA, J&J's surgical robot. Since joining J&J in 2021, I've worked on early-stage development projects including topical skin adhesives, lung cancer drug delivery tools, biomanufacturing process automation, and benchtop models that reduce the need for animal testing. I hold a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford focused on microfluidics, and a B.S.E. in Chemical Engineering from Princeton.

Peer-reviewed

Publications

  1. 2021Bick, A., Khor, J. W., Gai, Y., Tang, S. K. Y. Strategic placement of an obstacle suppresses droplet break-up in the hopper flow of a microfluidic soft crystal. PNAS 118, e2017822118.
  2. 2021Kim, T. J., Ha, B., Bick, A., Kim, M., Tang, S. K., Pratx, G. Microfluidics-coupled radioluminescence microscopy for in vitro radiotracer kinetic studies. Analytical Chemistry 93, 4425–4433.
  3. 2021Castaño, N., Cordts, S., Jalil, M. K., Zhang, K., Koppaka, S., Bick, A., Paul, R., Tang, S. K. Y. Fomite transmission and disinfection strategies for SARS-CoV-2 and related viruses. ACS Omega.
  4. 2019Bick, A., Tang, S. K. Y. Effect of volume fraction on droplet break-up in an emulsion flowing through a microfluidic constriction. Applied Physics Letters 115, 093702.
  5. 2019Gai, Y., Bick, A., Tang, S. K. Y. Timescale and spatial distribution of local plastic events in a two-dimensional microfluidic crystal. Physical Review Fluids 4, 014201.
  6. 2015Bick, A., Boulogne, F., Sauret, A., Stone, H. A. Tunable transport of drops on a vibrating inclined fiber. Applied Physics Letters 107(18).
  7. 2014Sauret, A., Bick, A. D., Duprat, C., Stone, H. A. Wetting of crossed fibers: multiple steady states and symmetry breaking. Europhysics Letters 105, 56006.
  8. 2013Duprat, C., Bick, A. D., Warren, P. B., Stone, H. A. Evaporation of drops on two parallel fibers: influence of the liquid morphology and fiber elasticity. Langmuir 29, 7857–7863.

Patents

  1. 2025Intratumoral drug delivery (Lung Cancer Initiative, J&J MedTech). WO 2025/224531
  2. 2024Intratumoral drug delivery (Lung Cancer Initiative, J&J MedTech). WO 2024/129800
  3. 2024Wound closure systems, devices and methods incorporating therapeutic devices (Ethicon Wound Closure, J&J MedTech). US 2024/0000455
  4. 2013Method and apparatus for testing water quality using a cell-phone application, mirror and plastic bag (High school research). US 8,472,661

Other Projects

Contact

alison@alisonbick.com