SACNAS 2015 National Conference

Ryan, Alex, and Ruth recently attended the SACNAS National Conference held in Washington D.C.  SACNAS (the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science) is an organization dedicated to the success of Chican@, Hispanic, Latin@, and Native American scientists to attain positions of leadership in government, industry, and academia.  Alex is president of the UIUC chapter, while Ryan is a faculty adviser for the chapter's successful Cena y Ciencias outreach program.  This year, the UIUC chapter won Graduate Chapter of the Year, and four members won individual awards for their research presentations.  Ryan was one of six presenters giving a workshop on how to establish an active outreach program with local elementary schools.


Highlight of Recent Publications

Congratulations to Enrique, Winnie, and James on their recent publications.

Rapid, Multiplexed Phosphoprotein Profiling Using Silicon Photonic Sensor Arrays

James H. Wade, Aurora T. Alsop, Nicholas R. Vertin, Hongwei Yang, Mark D. Johnson, and Ryan C. Bailey

ACS Central Science (2015) DOI: 10.1021/acscentsci.5b00250

 

Abstract: Extracellular signaling is commonly mediated through post-translational protein modifications that propagate messages from membrane-bound receptors to ultimately regulate gene expression. Signaling cascades are ubiquitously intertwined, and a full understanding of function can only be gleaned by observing dynamics across multiple key signaling nodes. Importantly, targets within signaling cascades often represent opportunities for therapeutic development or can serve as diagnostic biomarkers. Protein phosphorylation is a particularly important post-translational modification that controls many essential cellular signaling pathways. Not surprisingly, aberrant phosphorylation is found in many human diseases, including cancer, and phosphoprotein-based biomarker signatures hold unrealized promise for disease monitoring. Moreover, phosphoprotein analysis has wide-ranging applications across fundamental chemical biology, as many drug discovery efforts seek to target nodes within kinase signaling pathways. For both fundamental and translational applications, the analysis of phosphoprotein biomarker targets is limited by a reliance on labor-intensive and/or technically challenging methods, particularly when considering the simultaneous monitoring of multiplexed panels of phosphoprotein biomarkers. We have developed a technology based upon arrays of silicon photonic microring resonator sensors that fills this void, facilitating the rapid and automated analysis of multiple phosphoprotein levels from both cell lines and primary human tumor samples requiring only minimal sample preparation.

Development and validation of an immunosensor for monocyte chemotactic protein 1 using a silicon photonic microring resonator biosensing platform

Enrique Valera, Winnie W. Shia, and Ryan C. Bailey

Clinical Biochemistry (2015) DOI: 10.1016/j.clinbiochem.2015.09.001

Objectives

We report the development of an optical immunosensor for the detection of monocyte chemotactic protein 1 (MCP-1) in serum samples. MCP-1 is a cytokine that is an emerging biomarker for several diseases/disorders, including ischemic cardiomyopathy, fibromyalgia, and some cancers.

Design and methods

The detection of MCP-1 was achieved by performing a sandwich immunoassay on a silicon photonic microring resonator sensor platform. The resonance wavelengths supported by microring sensors are responsive to local changes in the environment accompanying biomarker binding. This technology offers a modularly multiplexable approach to detecting analyte localization in an antibody-antigen complex at the sensor surface.

Results

The immunosensor allowed the rapid detection of MCP-1 in buffer and spiked human serum samples. An almost 2 order of magnitude linear range was observed, between 84.3 and 1582.1 pg/mL and the limits of blank and detection were determined to be 0.3 and 0.5 pg/mL, respectively. The platform's ability to analyze MCP-1 concentrations across a clinically-relevant concentration range was demonstrated.

Conclusions

A silicon photonic immunosensor technology was applied to the detection of clinically-relevant concentrations of MCP-1. The performance of the sensor was validated through a broad dynamic range and across a number of suggested clinical cut-off values. Importantly, the intrinsic scalability and rapidity of the technology makes it readily amenable to the simultaneous detection of multiplexed biomarker panels, which is particularly needed for the clinical realization of inflammatory diagnostics.

Congrats to Dr. Jess Banks on her final defense!

Jess successfully defended her thesis today! Her thesis is titled: Biomolecularly and Mechanically Instructive Materials for Guiding Cell-Substrate Interactions. Jess is headed off to Boston this summer to apply her skills pharmaceutical industry. The entire Bailey lab wishes her the best in all her future endeavors!

Congrats to Dr. Rory Alsop on her final defense!

Aurora (Rory) Alsop has successfully defended her these entitled: The Heterogeneous Biochemical Modification of Porous Collagen Scaffolds for Tissue Engineering Applications. We wish her the best of luck as she heads to Seattle this summer!

Pittcon 2015

French Quarter, New Orleans, Wikimedia

French Quarter, New Orleans, Wikimedia

Congratulations to Prof. Bailey for receiving the Pittsburgh Conference Achievement Award at the 2015 Pittcon Conference & Expo. He and the rest of the lab had a productive trip down to New Orleans. In recognition of the award, conference staff interviewed Prof. Bailey for Pittcon Today, a daily publication recognizing important events throughout the conference. Here is a link to the interview. Prof. Bailey let's us know what he was like as a kid, what he likes to do in his spare time, and the next scientific breakthrough he'd like to see.

We also found out what he would have done if he had not become a professor:

I think I’d want to be a gardener or an organic vegetable farmer. I like to spend time outside… and I find it’s very therapeutic to work with my hands in the soil, and then reap the rewards! I have a little backyard garden for my family.

A few pictures from the trip: