Aaron R. Wheeler is a Canadian chemist who is a professor of

chemistry Chemistry is the science, scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a natural science that covers the Chemical element, elements that make up matter to the chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules and ions ...

and

biomedical engineering Biomedical engineering (BME) or medical engineering is the application of engineering principles and design concepts to medicine and biology for healthcare purposes (e.g., diagnostic or therapeutic). BME is also traditionally logical sciences ...

at the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...

since 2005 with cross-appointment at Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Terrence Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research. His academic laboratory is located at Lash Miller Chemical Laboratories and Terrence Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research at the

. In 2005, Wheeler was appointed as assistant professor and Tier II

Canada Research Chair Canada Research Chair (CRC) is a title given to certain Canadian university research professors by the Canada Research Chairs Program. Program goals The Canada Research Chair program was established in 2000 as a part of the Government of Canada ...

then promoted to associate professor in 2010, full professor in 2013, and in 2018 he became the Tier I

in Microfluidic Bioanalysis.

Education

Wheeler did his undergraduate studies at

Furman University Furman University is a private liberal arts university in Greenville, South Carolina. Founded in 1826 and named for the clergyman Richard Furman, Furman University is the oldest private institution of higher learning in South Carolina. It became ...

in Greenville, SC then he joined

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

from 1997 to 2003 to obtain his Ph.D. in chemistry under supervision of Richard Zare . Following graduation, he took a two-year NIH postdoctoral fellowship at

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

till 2005.

Career

Wheeler's research focuses on developing lab-on-a-chip techniques for high-throughput

proteomics Proteomics is the large-scale study of proteins. Proteins are vital parts of living organisms, with many functions such as the formation of structural fibers of muscle tissue, enzymatic digestion of food, or synthesis and replication of DNA. In ...

, diagnostics and

drug discovery In the fields of medicine, biotechnology and pharmacology, drug discovery is the process by which new candidate medications are discovered. Historically, drugs were discovered by identifying the active ingredient from traditional remedies or by ...

. This involves using

digital microfluidics Digital microfluidics (DMF) is a platform for lab-on-a-chip systems that is based upon the manipulation of microdroplets. Droplets are dispensed, moved, stored, mixed, reacted, or analyzed on a platform with a set of insulated electrodes. Digital ...

(DMF) to manipulate fluid droplets on an array of electrodes with the goal of reducing analysis time and

reagent In chemistry, a reagent ( ) or analytical reagent is a substance or compound added to a system to cause a chemical reaction, or test if one occurs. The terms ''reactant'' and ''reagent'' are often used interchangeably, but reactant specifies a ...

consumption while integrating multiple functions onto a single device. Practical applications of his work in DMF include its use in cell culture and clinical analysis. One of Wheeler's recent research methods, P-CLIP, has the potential to address issues that microfluidic researchers encounter when attempting to identify low-concentration target analytes in small sample sizes. This method could lead to progress in various assays, including the diagnosis of infectious diseases. In 2018, Wheeler's lab team, adopted a hacker approach to create a portable, adaptable lab-on-a-chip diagnostic tool. They field-tested this system in Kakuma, Kenya, successfully measuring immunity levels to vaccine-preventable diseases in at-risk groups, conducting 600+ immunoassays on 150 patient samples using portable microfluidic systems during a three-week field trial. Their findings are published in th
journal Science Translational Medicine
Wheeler is Editor-in-chef for the microfluidics journal ''

Lab on a Chip A lab-on-a-chip (LOC) is a device that integrates one or several laboratory functions on a single integrated circuit (commonly called a "chip") of only millimeters to a few square centimeters to achieve automation and high-throughput screening. ...

'', published by the

Royal Society of Chemistry The Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) is a learned society (professional association) in the United Kingdom with the goal of "advancing the chemistry, chemical sciences". It was formed in 1980 from the amalgamation of the Chemical Society, the Ro ...

. Before that he was as an associate editor for the same journal since 2013.

Awards

Wheeler was awarded the Lab on a Chip Pioneers in Miniaturization Award (2017), an E.W.R. Steacie Fellowship from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) (2015), a Connaught Foundation McLean Fellowship (2014), the Joseph Black Award from the Royal Society of Chemistry (2012), the Arthur F. Findeis Award from the

American Chemical Society The American Chemical Society (ACS) is a scientific society based in the United States that supports scientific inquiry in the field of chemistry. Founded in 1876 at New York University, the ACS currently has more than 155,000 members at all d ...

(2012), the Young Innovator Award in Analytical Chemistry (2011), and a Sloan Research Fellowship (2009). In January 2024, Wheeler was honored with the Ricardo Aroca Award, recognizing his contributions to analytical chemistry and advancing lab-on-a-chip techniques, particularly through the use of digital microfluidics (DMF), which enables precise manipulation of liquid droplets on electrode arrays. The Award is bestowed upon a scientist living in Canada who has made a notable contribution to the discipline of analytical chemistry while conducting research within the country.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wheeler, Aaron Canadian academics Living people American chemists Canadian chemists Stanford University alumni Furman University alumni Academic staff of the University of Toronto Canada Research Chairs Year of birth missing (living people)