Prof. James P. Landers (University of Virginia)
Event Date:
February 24, 2014 – 4:00 PM to February 25, 2014 – 4:59 PM
Location:
Burson 115
Event Date:
February 24, 2014 – 4:00 PM to February 25, 2014 – 4:59 PM
Location:
Burson 115
Seminar Series
Spring 2014
Prof. James P. Landers
University of Virginia
“Integrated Microfluidic Systems for Genetic Analysis: Exploiting the Microscale for Ultrafast Forensic DNA Profiling”
Abstract:
Microfluidic flow, the core of Lab-on-a-Chip technologies, has exploded since 2002 when valving functionality allowed multiple chemically-distinct processes to be executed and controlled on the same device. In 2006, we showed the first true evidence that microfluidic technology could provide a Lab-on-a-Chip solution for real-world analysis with sample-in/answer-out capabilities, integrated chemistries and fluidic control for executing sequential sample preparation steps prior to a read-out from separation/detection. Carrying out on-chip microscale chromatography (DNA purification), PCR (amplify target sequence), the electrophoresis (separation 5-color fluorescence detection), Bacillus anthracis could be detected in infected mouse blood with sample-to-result in less than 30 minutes (similarly with Bordetella pertussis from a human nasal swabs). This technology has been funneled into, and honed for, application to short tandem repeat (STR) profiling for forensic human identification. Here, 18 different locations (loci) in the human genome are probed for the number of tetra- and penta-nucleotide repeats. These are unique to the individualThe resultant ‘STR profile’ can be obtained from raw sample (buccal swab or blood) in ~1 hr. The specific aspects of the technology will be discussed in a framework pertinent to forensics while alluding to newer, fluorescence-free, less sophisticated approaches to DNA detection.
BIO:
James Landers is Professor of Chemistry, Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Virginia, and an Associate Professor of Pathology at the University of Virginia Health System. He received his Bachelor of Science (1984; Biochemistry; minor in Biomedicine) and a PhD at the University of Guelph. He earned his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the same department in 1988. After a one-year post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Toronto School of Medicine Endocrinology), an Medical Research Council (MRC) Fellowship allowed him to study endocrine cancer biology under Tom Spelsberg at the Mayo Clinic. After that post-doctoral fellowship, he launched and directed the Clinical Capillary Electrophoresis Facility in the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology developing clinical assays using microscale technology. As a Professor of Analytical Chemistry at the University of Pittsburgh, he forayed into analytical microfluidic systems for next generation molecular diagnostic platforms. Some of the seminal developments are now incorporated into the commercial system developed by MicroLab, LLC in partnership with Lockheed Martin. He has published more than 220 papers in peer-reviewed journals, 22 book chapters and edited three editions of the CRC Press Handbook of Capillary Electrophoresis. Having developed one of the first sample in-answer out microdevices for genetic analysis, his team received the 2008 Association for Lab Automation ‘Innovative Technology of the Year’ Award, and his lab is viewed as one of the top five forensic DNA research programs in the country. He is currently the Microfluidics Editor for Analytica Chimica Acta, is a member of the Analytical Chemistry Editorial Advisory Board, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and the Director of the Center for Nano-Bio Research at UVA.
Monday, February 24, 2014 @ 4:00 PM in Burson 115