Professor Wheeler honoured with Heinrich Emanuel Merck Award

Wheeler, Professor, University of Toronto.

DARMSTADT, GERMANY: The 2012 Heinrich Emanuel Merck Award for Analytical Science will be given to Professor Wheeler from the University of Toronto for his development of a digital microfluidic method for the extraction and quantification of estrogen in 1-microliter samples of breast tissue homogenate, whole blood and serum. This method may be broadly applicable for diagnostics requiring frequent analysis of hormones in clinical samples, which are important markers for example in infertility or cancer.

The award, endowed with € 15,000, will be presented to Professor Wheeler at Merck Millipore’s Technology Exposition in Bedford, Massachusetts, US on 17 October 2012. “Professor Wheeler’s development of new analytical methods using digital microfluidic technology to overcome the limitations of conventional techniques in the extraction and quantification of estrogen is an outstanding scientific achievement with significant societal impact, for example in breast cancer diagnosis,” explained Reinhard Niessner, Professor, Technical University of Munich, Germany) and the head of the international jury for the Heinrich Emanuel Merck Award.

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