"This is a talk from July 2021 describing our work on CRISPR-based medical diagnostics. First, we review and describe methods of quantifying kinetic rates of CRISPR enzymes. Second, we review our work on controlling and accelerating CRISPR reactions using an on-chip process called isotachophoresis. Third, we describe our work on integrating LAMP preamplification with CRISPR detection for detection of the RNA of SARS-CoV-2, the virus which causes Covid-19. We end the talk with an update on our efforts for automating and integrating an on-chip assay which performs purification, reverse transcription, LAMP amplification, and CRISPR detection in a single chip.
The talk cites the following papers from our group:
Ramachandran, Ashwin, Diego A. Huyke, Eesha Sharma, Malaya K. Sahoo, ChunHong Huang, Niaz Banaei, Benjamin A. Pinsky, and Juan G. Santiago. "Electric field-driven microfluidics for rapid CRISPR-based diagnostics and its application to detection of SARS-CoV-2." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 117, 47 (2020): 29518-29525.
Ramachandran A, Santiago JG. CRISPR Enzyme Kinetics for Molecular Diagnostics. Analytical Chemistry, 93, 20 (2021): 7456–7464."
Juan G. Santiago received PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1995. His research includes the development of microsystems for on-chip chemical and biochemical analysis, methods for DNA quantification and hybridization, and electric-field based deionization methods. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineering, and a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering. He serves and has served as an editor of several journals and co-founded several companies in microfluidics. His work is cited over 1400 times per year (Google Scholar h index of 71). 30 of his ex-students and ex-postdocs have continued in microfluidics research including 19 professors at major universities, seven in corporate labs, and four in microfluidic startup companies. He has authored and co-authored over 190 archival publications and is a named inventor on 52 patents, 26 of which are currently licensed. (Bio from Prof. Santiago's website)
