Biosensing with Digital Resolution for Ultrasensitive Diagnostics

Date/Time
Date(s) - 04/10/2019
5:30 pm - 8:00 pm

Location
Metropolitan Plaza

Categories

• Cleveland Section

The most demanding challenges in diagnostics require detection of low concentrations of virus, proteins, or nucleic acids within test samples comprised of only a few droplets of test sample. The idea of a “liquid biopsy” in which biomarkers for disease can be detected in a single droplet of blood from a fingerstick will enable diagnostic tests to be performed with much less pain, inconvenience, and invasiveness compared to tissue biopsy or a blood draw performed by a phlebotomist. The potential to perform routine (daily) ultrasensitive diagnostic tests using simple assay protocols and inexpensive detection instruments is the driving force behind “personalized” cancer treatment that is directed towards specific mutations as they evolve, the ability to adjust antiviral therapy in response to viral load, and the ability to detect/identify deadly pathogens.
This presentation will summarize recent efforts in the Cunningham group to develop point-of-care, digital-resolution technologies for sensing pathogens and molecular disease biomarkers in bodily fluids. Utilizing the unique properties of photonic crystal nanostructured surfaces, we have developed approaches for enhancing the output of photon emitters, such as semiconductor quantum dots (QD), by >100x, enabling individual emitters to be detected with high contrast. We are applying photonic crystal enhanced fluorescence (PCEF) of QD tags towards detection of circulating mRNA and miRNA that are correlated with specific mutations involved in prostate cancer. In parallel, we have developed a new form of biosensor microscopy, called NanoParticle Photonic Resonator Absorption Microscopy (NP-PRAM) in which plasmonic gold nanoparticles serve as resonant-matched nanoantennas that, when attached to a photonic crystal surface, enabling single nanoparticles to be visualized with high contrast. We are developing novel assay methods and detection instruments that enable NP-PRAM to quantify femtomolar concentrations of miRNA biomarkers, with a simple, rapid test that does not require chemical amplification. We are also applying NP-PRAM to detection intact HIV particles as a direct approach to viral load monitoring. While PCEF and NP-PRAM detection systems are intended for the laboratory bench, we are also developing mobile sensing platforms that utilize a smartphone’s internal camera as the detection instrument, in conjunction with a handheld special-purpose cradle. We are developing microfluidic chips that perform nucleic acid amplification assays, in which the amplification process can be dynamically imaged to enable counting of pathogenic DNA.

Dr. Brian T. Cunningham, IEEE Photonics Society Distinguished Lecturer

Brian Cunningham is a Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Department of Bioengineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he has been a faculty member since 2004. His group focuses on the development of nanophotonic surfaces, plastic-based nanofabrication methods, and novel instrumentation approaches for biodetection with applications in pharmaceutical screening, life science research, environmental monitoring, disease diagnostics, and point-of-care patient testing. At Illinois, Prof. Cunningham serves as the Director of the Bioengineering Graduate Program and Director of the NSF Center for Agricultural, Biomedical, and Pharmaceutical Nanotechnology (CABPN). Prof. Cunningham was the founder and the Chief Technical Officer of SRU Biosystems (Woburn, MA), a life science tools company that provides high sensitivity plastic-based optical biosensors, instrumentation, and software to the pharmaceutical, academic research, genomics, and proteomics communities. Prof. Cunningham was recognized with the IEEE Sensors Council 2010 Technical Achievement Award for the invention, development, and commercialization of biosensors utilizing photonic crystals. He is a Fellow of the IEEE and the AIMBE. Prior to founding SRU Biosystems in June, 2000, Dr. Cunningham was the Manager of Biomedical Technology at Draper Laboratory (Cambridge, MA), where he directed R&D projects aimed at utilizing defense-related technical capabilities for medical applications. In addition, Dr. Cunningham served as Group Leader for MEMS Sensors at Draper Laboratory, where he directed a group performing applied research on microfabricated inertial sensors, acoustic sensors, optical switches, microfluidics, tissue engineering, and biosensors. Concurrently, he was an Associate Director of the Center for Innovative Minimally Invasive Therapy (CIMIT), a Boston-area medical technology consortium, where he led the Advanced Technology Team on Microsensors. Before working at Draper Laboratory, Dr. Cunningham spent 5 years at the Raytheon Electronic Systems Division developing advanced infrared imaging array technology for defense and commercial applications. Dr. Cunningham earned his BS, MS, and PhD degrees in Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Illinois. His thesis research was in the field of optoelectronics and compound semiconductor material science, where he contributed to the development of crystal growth techniques that are now widely used for manufacturing solid state lasers, and high frequency amplifiers for wireless communication.

Gather at 5:30 PM, Lecture at 6:00 PM, Q&A until NLT 8:00 PM.

Complimentary refreshments.

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