Seminar - Functional Materials and Synthetic Biology: The Perfect Pair for Sensing Disease
Dr. Daniel Richards from ETH (Zürich) will be giving a seminar on Functional Materials and Synthetic Biology: The Perfect Pair for Sensing Disease
ABSTRACT: In vitro diagnostics (IVDs) are the cornerstone of functional healthcare systems. Effective use of IVDs can help clinicians identify the presence and extent of disease in their patients, as well as their general health. Moreover, IVDs provide a wealth of epidemiological information that can be used to track the spread of disease and improve our understanding of population health. Unfortunately, the benefits of IVDs have not been equally distributed in society; over 40% of the global population, primarily in low-income regions, has no access to life-saving diagnostics. To address this inequality, the research community is pushing to make diagnostics more accessible. In this talk, I will detail my lab's contributions to this effort. I will discuss how we leverage functional materials and synthetic biology, often in combination, to simplify and improve common bioassays to facilitate deployment in low-resource settings. Specifically, I will talk about how laser-graphenised cellulose can be employed to develop cheap and scalable paper-based analytical devices (µPADS) and how these devices can perform a plethora of assays for different disease targets. I will also briefly discuss our latest work on CRISPR-Cas-based biosensors and how we are moving these technologies to the point-of-care.
About Daniel Richards
Dr. Daniel Richards is a Chemist by training, having received his PhD in Chemistry and Chemical Biology from University College London, under the supervision of Dr. Jamie Baker. His PhD focused on developing novel chemical methods for modifying and manipulating proteins. He undertook postdoctoral research with Professor Molly Stevens (Imperial College London) and Dr. Vijay Chudasama (University College London), where he focused on developing novel affinity protein-nanomaterial conjugates for biosensing applications. He subsequently moved to ETH Zürich with a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual fellowship, where he joined the deMello group and now holds the position of Senior Scientist / Group Leader. His research interests are broad, but he focuses primarily on developing biosensors and in vitro diagnostics.
