Dr. Yatian Qu is a microfluidics research scientist at Purigen Biosystems. She is working on developing hands-free solutions for extracting and quantifying nucleic acids from biological samples. She received her M.S. (2012) and Ph.D. (2016) in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University. She has diverse research experiences in microfluidics, including developing novel electrophoresis techniques to extract nucleic acids and proteins from biological samples and developing high-performance water desalination systems using porous carbon materials. She is also the co-founder of Bay Area Microfluidics Network, an organization that brings together leaders in microfluidics to foster innovation and collaboration in Silicon Valley.