Expertise
Dr. Yinfa Ma’s first research branch focuses on bio-analysis and bio-separations, and early cancer screening by using different biomarkers and different techniques is his major focus. Research is conducted using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), high performance capillary electrophoresis (HPCE), GC-MS, HPLC-MS, HPCE-MS, gel electrophoresis, and size-exclusion chromatography, in an attempt to develop new bioanalytical instrumentation and procedures. Dr. Ma’s second branch research focuses on environmental contaminants in natural water resources, drinking waters, and their impact to human health. The environmental contaminants we are investigating include: pharmaceutical and personal care products (PPCPs), nanomaterials, heavy metals, algae toxins, and disinfection byproducts (DBPs), and pesticides and herbicides. Laser spectroscopy, standard "wet" chemistry plus the extensive use of personal computers for data collection and data processing are also incorporated into all of the research projects. In addition, single molecule and single cell imaging technology has been used extensively for nanotoxicity study for the past several years and will continue with this research project in the years to come. The third research branch is a collaborated research on understanding the fluid flow in tight and shale gas formation. The major targets on improving the understanding of the flow behavior of natural gas and introduced fluids (water, surfactant solutions and polymers) in nano-darcy range of tight gas and shale formations by using advanced single-molecule imaging system combined with nano-fluidic chips and pore-scale numerical simulation techniques