Publications

Patents:

• August 11, 2025: The project team filed a joint patent VUB BPHOT/NCSRD (inventors A.S. Kastania, A. Dimitriou, S. Abbasi, V. Constantoudis, N. Papanikolaou, H. Ottevaere, E. Gogolides) on 'Nanotextured substrates for surface-enhanced optical detection', application number EP25195254.5.
• June 19, 2025: BPHOT team (inventors Q. Liu and H. Ottevaere) filed a patent application on 'Microfluidic Refractometer', application number EP25184044.3.

Our published research:

• 2026: Kastania Athina S., Evangelos Gogolides, and Angeliki Tserepi. The added value of micro-nanotextured surfaces integrated in microfluidics and Lab-on-a-chip"  Front. Lab Chip Technol. 5:1768163. Available at: https://doi.org/10.3389/frlct.2026.1820279

• 2026: Sakiz Gusta Irem and De Malsche Wim. Approaches to enable vortex chromatography in silicon devices. Front. Lab Chip Technol. 5:1768163. Available at: https://doi.org/10.3389/frlct.2026.1768163

• 2026: Bihi, I., Bahrami Eisaabadi, D., & De Malsche, W. Numerical investigation of axial dispersion reduction in chromatography using AC-electroosmotic flow in tapered geometries: concept and numerical investigation. Journal of Chromatography A, 1767, 466627. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chroma.2025.466627

• 2025: Abbasi, S., Liu, Q., Rosseel, D., Thienpont, H., & Ottevaere, H. Enabling rapid parallel SERS detection with integrated microlens array. Sensing and Bio-Sensing Research, 48(20), 100808. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbsr.2025.100808

• 2025: Feizpour, M., Abbasi, S., et al. Direct laser writing of curved SERS for light-guided enhancement. Talanta. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.talanta.2024.127130

• 2025: Kastania, A.S., Mouchtouris, S., Stai, E., Zeniou, A., Kokkoris, G., Constantoudis, V., Tsavalas, P., Mergia, K., Gogolides, E., & Tserepi, A. Plasma-Induced Maskless Formation of Quasi-Periodic Nanoripples on Polymeric Substrates. Adv. Eng. Mater., 2402729. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1002/adem.202402729

• 2024: Zeniou, A., Kefallinou, D., Dimitrakellis, P., Xenogiannopoulou, E., Grigoriou, M., Dimoulas, A., Boumpas, D.T., Tserepi, A., & Gogolides, E. Atmospheric Pressure Plasma Functionalization of Sealed PDMS Microfluidics: Application to Capillary Pumping and Enhanced Cell Growth. ChemPlusChem, 89(12), e202400290. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1002/cplu.202400290

• 2024: Liu, Q., Baghdasaryan, T., & Ottevaere, H. Data-driven investigation of thickness variations in multilayer thin film coatings. Journal of Physics: Photonics, 6(4), 045020. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1088/2515-7647/ad8614

• 2024: Feizpour, M., Abbasi, S., Demuyser, T., Liu, Q., Thienpont, H., Meulebroeck, W., & Ottevaere, H. Automatic optimization of spectral classifiers' hyperparameters for pathogen identification through evolutionary techniques. In Data Science for Photonics and Biophotonics, 13011, pp. 29–35. SPIE. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1117/12.3016250

• 2024: Feizpour, M., Liu, Q., Van der Donck, T., Thienpont, H., Meulebroeck, W., & Ottevaere, H. Characterizing planar SERS substrates: Unraveling the link between physical characteristics and performance metrics. Journal of Physics: Photonics. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1088/2515-7647/ad2528

• 2024: Bihi, I., Gelin, P., Frankel, I., & De Malsche, W. A numerical study of the effects of lateral flow and retention in open tubular vortex chromatography. Journal of Chromatography A, 1736, 465370. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chroma.2024.465370

• 2023: Abbasi, S., Feizpour, M., Weets, I., Liu, Q., Thienpont, H., Ferranti, F., & Ottevaere, H. Classification of hemoglobin fractions in the liquid state using Raman spectroscopy combined with machine learning. Microchemical Journal, 194, 109305. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.microc.2023.109305

Awards:

• Dariush Bahrami Eisaabadi received a travel grant from FWO to visit µTAS 2025, 2-6 November 2025, Adelaide, Australia.
• During µTAS 2025, Dariush Bahrami Eisaabadi received a cash reward from The Chemical and Biological Microsystems Society (CBMS) for his poster on 'Evaluation of Vortex Liquid Chromatography in a Polymeric Chip via Lateral Flow by AC-Electroosmotic Flow'
• Sara Abbasi, B-PHOT/VUB, was awarded the 'Best Student Paper' with her work on 'Advancing hemoglobinopathy screening with Raman spectroscopy and machine learning' at the SPIE Photonics Europe 2024 conference held in Strasbourg, France.
• Panagiotis Skaltsounis received a 'Best Poster Award' for his poster on 'Inertial microfluidic device bearing cavities for microparticle separation' at the 11th International Conference on Micro-nanoelectronics, Nanotechnology and Mems (Micro Nano 2024), Lemnos, Greece, 11-13 October 2024.
• Gerburg Schider won the 'Best Performance Award' for her short presentation at 'Green and digital transformation: Zukunftskonferenz 2023' (https://www.joanneum.at/en/best-performance-award-die-highlights-unserer-forschung/).

Workshops:

• 2024/09/03: "Advanced Microfabrication Techniques for Microfluidic Devices" Gooik, BELGIUM

Conferences, visits, exhibitions and booths

• Liu, Q., Abbasi, S., & Ottevaere, H. presented 'Optimizing Plasmonic Substrates through Advanced FDTD Simulations' at SPIE Photonics Europe, April 2026.
• Abbasi, S., Liu, Q., & Ottevaere, H. presented 'Improving SERS Reproducibility in Microfluidic Chips Using Integrated Microlens Arrays' at SPIE Photonics Europe, April 2026.
• Poster presented at POCT26 in Antwerp: 
  • 'Active dispersion control in polymeric chips for Point-of-Care Testing' by Ilyesse Bihi et al., 
  • 'Improvement of a polymeric vortex liquid chromatography chip using AC-electroosmotic flow in tapered microchannels for point-of-care testing' by Dariush Bahrami et al.,
  • 'SERS Detection Module for Point-of-Care Identification of Hemoglobin Variants in Diabetes Management' by Sara Abbasi et al.
• A.S. Kastania, E. Stai, S. Mouchtouris, V. Constantoudis, G. Kokkoris, P. Tsavalas, K. Mergia, G. Schider, D. Borstner, P. Melchior, D. Nees, B. Stadlober, E. Gogolides, A. Tserepi presented on 'Polymeric microfluidic channel sidewalls bearing plasma-induced periodic surface structures' at the 12th International Conference on Micro-Nanoelectronics, Nanotechnology and MEMS (Micro Nano & Chips Tech 2025), 6-9 November 2025, Chania, Greece.
• Nicolas Vandencasteele of CPI and Filip Legein of VUB both presented on the project at V2025, November 15, 2025, Dresden, Germany.
• Dariush Bahrami presented on 'Evaluation of Vortex Liquid Chromatography in a Polymeric Chip via Lateral Flow by AC-Electroosmotic Flow' at µTAS 2025, 2-6 November 2025, Adelaide, Australia.
• Sara Abbasi public PhD defense on 'Photonics-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy for the Identification of Hemoglobin Fractions', 10 October 2025.
• A.S. Kastania, E. Stai, S. Mouchtouris, V. Constantoudis, G. Kokkoris, P. Tsavalas, K. Mergia, G. Schider, D. Borstner, P. Melchior, D. Nees, B. Stadlober, E. Gogolides, A. Tserepi presented on 'Plasma-induced periodic surface structures on polymeric microfluidic channel sidewalls' at the 51st International Micro and Nano Engineering Conference (MNE 2025), 15-18 September 2025, Southampton, UK.
• Wim De Malsche presented on 'Introducing vortex chromatography in polymeric devices' at LAMic 2025, Monterrey, September 10-12, 2025.
• P. Skaltsounis, G. Kokkoris, A. Tserepi presented on 'Shape Optimization of Cavity-Based Microfluidic Rare Cell Separation Device' at the 9th International Conference on Micro and Nano Flows (MNF 2025), 2-4 September 2025, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK.
• Liu, Q., Baghdasaryan, T., & Ottevaere, H. presented on 'Machine learning-driven analysis of thickness variations in multilayer thin film coatings for photonics' at SPIE Optics + Photonics 2025, August 2025. Published in Modeling Aspects in Optical Metrology X (Vol. 13568, pp. 37-41).
• A.S. Kastania spoke about 'Plasma micro-nanotextured smart surfaces and microfluidic devices' at the 60th Summer School 2025, NCSRD "Demokritos", 7-11 July 2025, Agia Paraskevi, Greece.
• E. Stai, V. Constantoudis, A.S. Kastania, A. Tserepi, D. Nioras, A. Zeniou, E. Gogolides presented on 'Computational analysis of the anisotropy of SEM images to quantify nanowire verticality and surface roughness' at the 9th National Metrology Conference, NCSRD "Demokritos", 20-21 June 2025, Agia Paraskevi, Greece.
• Wim De Malsche presented on 'Realization of vortex chromatography in polymeric devices' at HPLC 2025, Bruges, June 15-19, 2025.
• Filip Legein participated with a booth at MPS World Summit 2025, Brussels, June 9-13, 2025.
• Feizpour, M., Abbasi, S., & Ottevaere, H. presented on 'Micro-curvature effects on SERS enhancement in curved substrates' at Optical Sensors 2025 (SPIE), May 2025. Published in Optical Sensors 2025 (Vol. 13527, pp. 97-101).
• Abbasi, S., Choobbari, M.L., & Ottevaere, H. presented on 'High-throughput microplastic sizing and quantification in water using static light scattering and machine learning' at Optical Sensors 2025 (SPIE), May 2025. Published in Optical Sensors 2025 (Vol. 13527, pp. 40-45).
• Daniel Borstner presented on 'Functional Structures in Microfluidic Devices Fabricated by Roll-to-Roll UV-Nanoimprint Lithography' at NIL Industrial Day, May 5-6, 2025, Vienna.
• Filip Legein participated with a booth at Knowledge for Growth, Antwerp, May 8, 2025.
• Daniel Borstner presented on 'Functional structures in microfluidic devices fabricated by Roll-to-Roll UV-nanoimprint lithography' at the European Coating Show, March 25-27, 2025, Nürnberg.
• Ilyesse Bihi presented on 'Enhancing Mixing and Reducing Dispersion in Polymeric Liquid Chromatography Columns through Wall Taper-Induced Vortices' at the Solvay Workshop: Mixing at the Crossroads of Foundations and Practices, December 4-6, 2024.
• Filip Legein participated with a booth at BioFIT 2024, Lille, December 3-4, 2024.
• Daniel Borstner presented on 'High aspect ratio structures in microfluidic channels by UV-nanoimprint lithography' at MNE 2024, September 16-19, 2024, Montpellier, France.
• VUB/BPHOT presented on 'Rapid and Accurate Differentiation of Sickle-cell Disease from Normal Hemoglobin using Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy' at BePOM, hosted by VUB, September 19-20, 2024.
• PhD student E. Stai of NCSRD presented on 'Computational analysis of the anisotropy of SEM images to quantify nanowire verticality and surface roughness' at the European Microscopy Congress 2024, Copenhagen, Denmark, 25-30 August 2024.
• Sara Abbasi of VUB/BPHOT presented on 'The Potential of Raman Spectroscopy for Accurate Identification of Hemoglobin Variants in Diabetes Diagnostics' at the XXVIII International Conference on Raman Spectroscopy (ICORS), August 2024, Rome, Italy.
• Anja Haase of JOR presented on 'High Aspect Ratio Structures in Microfluidic Channels by UV-Nanoimprint Lithography' at NNT NIL Industrial Day, June 24-27, 2024, Lund, Sweden.
• Wim De Malsche and Filip Legein of VUB/µFlow visited Knowledge for Growth, Antwerp, Belgium, May 15-16, 2024, to meet with the biotech community.
• NCSRD presented on 'Plasma etching and roughening of inclined objects, macroscopic surfaces and microfluidic channels: experiments and modelling' at MNE 2023, Berlin, September 24-28, 2023.
• PhD student Panagiotis Skaltsounis of NCSRD presented on 'Cavity-based inertial microfluidic device for the separation of rare cells with different size: a computational study' at the Micro & Nano Flows Conference, Padova, Italy, September 18-20, 2023.
• VUB/BPHOT presented on 'SERS biosensing of sickle cell hemoglobin from normal hemoglobin' at SPIE Optics + Photonics, August 20-24, 2023, San Diego, California, United States.
• NCSRD presented on 'Plasma-induced nanotexturing on horizontal and inclined polymeric surfaces' at PESM Conference (Plasma Etch and Strip in Microtechnology), Grenoble, France, June 19-20, 2023.
• Daniel Borstner of JOR presented on 'High aspect ratio structures in microfluidic channels by UV-nanoimprint lithography' at Point-of-Care, Biosensors & Mobile Diagnostics Europe, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, June 19-20, 2023.
• Ilyesse Bihi of VUB/µFlow presented on 'Exploiting wall taper to induce vortices and reduce dispersion in plastic liquid chromatography columns' at HPLC 2023, Düsseldorf, Germany, June 18-22, 2023.
• Wim De Malsche and Filip Legein of VUB/µFlow visited Knowledge for Growth, Antwerp, Belgium, May 30 – June 1, 2023, to meet with the biotech community.
• Ilse Weets visited EuroMedLab, Rome, May 21-25, 2023, to interact with suppliers of diabetes monitoring devices.
• Barbara Stadlober and Gerburg Schider presented at NIL Industrial Day, Vienna, April 16-17, 2023. The VortexLC project was presented at the JOR booth with a poster and leaflets.
• Barbara Stadlober, Gerburg Schider, and Evangelos Gogolides visited, interacted with peers and industry, and presented on VortexLC at Micro and Nano Engineering (MNE), Leuven, September 19-23, 2022. JOR presented VortexLC with a roll-up poster at the booth they hosted in the exhibition.
• Heidi Ottevaere referred to the project in her invited talk 'Biosensing: measuring the devil inside!' at the World General Congress for Optics and Photonics of the International Commission for Optics (ICO) and the International Society on Optics Within Life Sciences (OWLS), Optical Sensing, September 5-9, 2022.
• Wim De Malsche and Filip Legein of VUB/µFlow visited HPLC 2022, San Diego, USA, June 18-23, 2022, and had the opportunity to present and meet with key players such as Thermo Fisher Scientific and Waters.
• Wim De Malsche of VUB/µFlow and Heidi Ottevaere of VUB/BPHOT were actively involved in the organization of MSB 2022, July 3-6, Liège, Belgium, where they had multiple interactions with academic and industrial peers.
• Filip Legein of VUB/µFlow visited Knowledge for Growth, Ghent, Belgium, May 18-19, 2022, to meet with the biotech community.
• The research objectives of VortexLC were presented in a Z-innovation broadcast of Belgian business channel Kanaal Z about the microfluidics activities of VUB µFlow in June 2022, also available on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_MZeJnzgp4).