Abstract: The compartimentation of fluids in the microliter, nanoliter and picoliter range lead recently to many applications of microfluidics in material development, in diagnostics and biological screenings. Droplet-based microfluidics allows the improvement of nanoparticle homogeneity and the tuning of particle properties. It supports combinatorial synthesis of inorganic as well as organic substances and can be applied for the cultivation and screening of bacteria, eucaryotic cells and embryos. The well-ordered handling and the addressing of microfluids segments improves the information transfer between chemical, biological and electronic systems. Despite this remarkable technical progress, there is a particular importance of microfluidics for futural nanotechnological solutions. The hierachical spatial organization of liquids, particles and gels in microfluidics represents a fundamental biomimetic principle which overcomes the limits of planar technology and opens the gate for realizing complex structured threedimensional nanoarchitectures. Recent applications of microstructured fluids in chemistry and biology and concepts for future developments will be discussed.

Brief Biography of the Speaker:
J. Michael Kohler (born 1956) studied chemistry at the universities of Halle/S. and Jena. After dissertation on electrochemical effects in microfabrication (1986), he lead projects on submicron photolithography at the Institute of Physical Technology in Jena. During a research stay 1991 in Dortmund (MPG) he dealt with chemical waves in gels. He get the habilitation for general and physical chemistry of the university of Jena in 1992. In the same year, he become the head of the microfabrication department, in 1994 the head of the microsystem department of the Institute of Physical High Technology in Jena. Since 2001, he is a full professor for Physical Chemistry and Micro Reaction Technology at the Technical University of Ilmenau. His research activities are focussed on the connection between chip reactors, cell screening in microfluidic systems, biomolecular technologies, nanomaterials and nanotechnology.