Skye Shepherd
Bioengineering PhD Student
University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana
Title: Ultrasensitive biomarker detection using target recycling
Abstract: There are many biomarkers of interest in monitoring or diagnostics of several diseases, where applications may include early diagnosis, evaluation of therapeutic efficiency and patient response, or real-time monitoring of disease progression. Here, we report a target recycling amplification process (TRAP) for digital detection of miRNAs using photonic resonator absorption microscopy (PRAM) and nucleic acid toehold-mediated strand displacement reactions. Through miRNA target recycling, we achieved multiplex digital detection of miRNAs with attomolar sensitivity in 20 minutes with broad dynamic range. TRAP additionally shows robust selectivity and is well-suited for circulating or minimally invasive biomarker quantification, particularly for biomarkers present in low concentrations or sample volumes. Currently, target recycling is being adapted for ultrasensitive detection of proteins, focusing on human IL-6.
Bio: Skye Shepherd is a 5th year graduate student in the Department of Bioengineering working in the Nanosensors Group with Prof. Cunningham. She has been developing ultrasensitive non-enzymatic methods using toehold-mediated strand displacement for nucleic acid and protein detection. Her research focuses on optical biosensors using digital detection.