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----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Faculty Candidate Lecture: Dr. Dev Kambhampati Host: Anthony Guiseppi-Elie;
(804) 827 7016, guiseppi@vcu.edu Investigating nucleic acid interactions are critical for deciphering the intricacies of the genome’s expression and single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) behavior. In addition, the current trend in viral infectious diseases (HIV, HCV etc.) diagnosis is to focus on nucleic acid based techniques (NAT) for highly sensitive and rapid detection of viral nucleic acids. Irrespective of the end application, it is important to understand the fundamentals of nucleic acid interactions in order to design highly sensitive assays that have sufficient throughput (for biochip type of applications) and reproducibility. This talk will focus on the design of various sensor architectures constructed on gold, gold/silicon oxide and plastic substrates for monitoring DNA-DNA and Peptide Nucleic Acid (PNA)-DNA interactions. Self-assembly techniques were used to construct two and three dimensional sensor architectures on gold while plasma polymerization was used on plastic substrates. Using the newly developed surface plasmon enhanced fluorescence (SPFS) technique, the kinetics of nucleic acid interactions was monitored in real-time on the gold substrates by varying numerous experimental parameters (sensor architectures, effect of probe/target length, concentration, temperature, flow, etc.). On plastic substrates, conventional fluorescent scanners were used (since SPFS is applicable only for metallic substrates). Very high signal-to-noise ratios could be obtained on gold based sensors while the results were satisfactory (with room for improvement) on plastic substrates. The above mentioned studies can be useful in avoiding certain pitfalls of commercially available DNA microarrays such as spot heterogeneity, cross-talk, microarray smearing, poor biocompatibility, high background and false hybridization interactions. Biography Dr. Dev Kambhampati, Program Manager at Xomics, has a relatively unorthodox background, with educational experiences in India (B.Tech, 1995), USA (MS, 1998) and Germany (PhD, 2001). While his initial field of study was catalysis and sol gel chemistry under the chemical engineering (B.Tech and M.S.) curriculum, his current focus is on biosensors, optics, biochips and clinical diagnostics. This shift in research focus can be attributed to his strong focus on interfaces and the experience gained at the Materials Science department of the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research in Mainz, Germany under the guidance of Prof. Wolfgang Knoll. He is an expert in the area of biochips and is
currently the Editor of the first book in the field of Protein Microarrays
(Wiley, 2003). He has received numerous awards, most notably the prestigious
Max Planck Society Fellowship (1998-2001) and the US Department of Energy’s
Riotech Environmental Excellence Award and AWU Fellowship. He has collaborated
extensively with Sandia and Pacific Northwest National Labs in the past
and currently maintains close contacts with both industry and academia
in the United States and Europe.
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