Elisabeth Verpoorte's Biography

Elisabeth Verpoorte, Chair of Analytical Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Analysis, University of Groningen

E.M.J. (Sabeth) Verpoorte has more than 30 years of research experience in the microfluidics or lab-on-a-chip field. Her introduction to this technology came in 1990, after her PhD with D. Jed Harrison at the University of Alberta, when she started as a postdoctoral researcher to the pioneering µTAS group headed by Professor Andreas Manz at Ciba Ltd., Basel, Switzerland. In 2003, Sabeth made a strategic switch to assume a Chair in the Groningen Research Institute of Pharmacy, making a foray into a new research environment dominated by cells, tissue and drug development. Projects have involved the development of organ-on-a-chip systems to study drug metabolism (liver chip, gut chip), diagnose endothelial dysfunction and monitor liver tissue function. Efforts have also concentrated on continuous-flow particle separation strategies, paper microfluidics, as well as miniaturized analytical instrumentation (paper spray ionization, multidimensional chromatography). The acquisition of interdisciplinary projects involving scientists from the life sciences, chemistry, and physics disciplines continues to be a driving force in her research.

In 2022, Verpoorte was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by Tampere University (Finland) for her work on lab-on-a-chip and organ-on-a-chip research as well as for long-standing interdisciplinary collaborations. A second honorary doctorate from Lund University (Sweden) followed in May of 2024 for outstanding research production within the lab-on-a-chip and microfluidics field, and for being a female role model as, in various ways, she has pursued the issue of female representation in scientific contexts.