Chemistry Seminar - Combating Deadly Infectious Diseases with Miniaturized Systems
Combating Deadly Infectious Diseases with Miniaturized Systems: From Single Molecule “Blinking” to “Bacterial Immunology”Dr. Ke Du Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engineering Kate Gleason College of Engineering, RITAbstract: The widespread outbreak of influenza infection in the 2017-2018 season is a striking indicator of the fact that the global community is struggling to prevent epidemics caused by infectious diseases. Ebola, for example, is a highly contagious and deadly disease that is responsible for severe, viral hemorrhagic fever. Without effective vaccine, developing a rapid and sensitive detection protocol is the key to stop the spread of epidemics. In my talk, I will first introduce an amplification-free detection method for Ebola by using an automated microfluidic device and an optofluidic nanosensing chip. A detection limit of 0.021 pfu/mL for clinical samples is achieved without target amplification. This detection limit is comparable with the limit for the real-time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) technique, but expensive reagents or equipment are not needed. Our technique has a wide detection range covering the whole clinically relevant range from attomolar to picomolar levels. Inspired by the “bacterial immunology”, I will then introduce our work on Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR), an emerging technology for rapid, sensitive, and all-solution phase pathogen diagnosis. Finally, I will talk about our recent efforts of using a deformable nano-sieve device to rapidly separate, concentrate, and retrieve drug-resistant bacteria from bodily fluids for colorimetric analysis.Speaker Bio:Professor Du is currently a tenure-track assistant professor of mechanical engineering at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) and leads the Nanobiosensing, Nanomanufacturing, and Nanomaterials (3N) Lab. He also holds appointment in the microsystems engineering. Before joining RIT in 2018, he was a postdoctoral researcher in the chemistry department at the University of California-Berkeley working for Richard Mathies. Currently, Du’s research group at RIT has been studying the interactions between biomolecules and nanostructures at the single-molecule level to enhance biomarker trapping and sensing. His research has been published in journals including ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, Analytical Chemistry, Advanced Functional Materials, ACS Nano, Applied Physics Letters, ACS Sensors, Biosensors and Bioelectronics, Chemistry of Materials, Diagnostics, Langmuir, Nanotechnology, and Small. His research work at RIT has been widely covered by CEP Magazine, Yahoo Finance, The Science Times, Photonics Media, and EurekAlert. Professor Du has been the recipient of the Burroughs Wellcome Fund (BWF) Collaborative Travel Grant (2019), the National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Student Fellowship (2012), James H. Potter Award (2014), and Innovation & Entrepreneur (IE) Fellowship (2009–2014). He was the only recipient worldwide of the 2017 Biosensors Travel Award and one of only two recipients worldwide of the 2017 Micromachines Travel Award. Du’s research is supported by BWF, the Department of Energy, the University of Rochester, and industry.
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