Dr. Steven A. Soper is a Foundation Distinguished Professor in the Departments of Chemistry and Mechanical Engineering at the University of Kansas. He is an innovator who helped foster single-molecule detection and grow microfluidics. Soper is now pioneering new and unique nanofluidics applications for precision medicine, including molecular analysis of liquid biopsy markers. In November 2021, Rachel Muenz, G2 interim managing editor and senior editor at G2 sister publication Lab Manager, connected with Soper via phone to discuss his recent work in microfluidics and reconnected with him for a quick update via email in January 2022. Soper recently won the 2022 Ralph N. Adams Award in Bioanalytical Chemistry, which you can learn more about in the January/February 2022 issue of Lab Manager.  ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Q: How long have you worked in microfluidics? A: I fostered and kind of grew microfluidics from its infancy. This is an area that I’ve been working on since 1995. What’s really unique [with] our work is using plastic as the material of choice to build the microfluidics and even nanofluidics. Plastics are becoming extremely important, because people are transitioning microfluidic devices into the diagnostics regime. And we are doing that too, very heartily, and we’re developing […]