Event
ChBE Seminar Series: Laurie E. Locascio
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
11:00 a.m.-12:15 a.m.
Room 2110, Chemical and Nuclear Engineering Bldg.
Professor Nam Sun Wang
nsw@umd.edu
Understanding Cellular Behavior Using Microfluidics
Presented by Dr. Laurie E. Locascio, Ph.D.
Chief, Biochemical Science Division
NIST
Today, the field of microfluidics brings the promise of discovery to modern biology as its applications span and enable technologically complex measurements such as high throughput sequencing and single cell assays. In the past several years, our research has focused on the development of microfluidic systems that advance bioanalytical and cellular measurement capabilities and that include: single cell manipulation and patterning; powerful pre-concentration and separation methods for DNA, RNA and proteins based on a novel technique called Temperature Gradient Focusing (TGF); methods for controlling spatial chemical gradients without convective flow for studying cell motility; dieelctrophoretic methods for cellular isolation and identification; and multi-step integrated approaches to whole transcriptome analysis at the single cell level. This presentation will describe these new technologies as well as some of the other advances that we have made in recent years that have impacted our research in the life sciences. All of these techniques rely on microfluidics as the critical enabling platform.
About the Speaker:
Dr. Laurie E. Locascio is the Chief of the Biochemical Science Division within the Chemical Science and Technology Laboratory, National Institute of Standards and Technology. In this position, she oversees a research portfolio that includes measurements and standards for forensic DNA analysis, DNA and RNA microarrays, tissue engineering, biological applications of microfluidics, DNA damage and repair, biosecurity, nanomaterial toxicity, flow cytometry, cellular biometrology, fluorescence and Raman analysis, biomarker identification, structural biology, biofuels, and genetically modified organisms. She received her B.Sc. in Chemistry from James Madison University, M.Sc. in bioengineering from the University of Utah, and Ph.D. in toxicology from the University of Maryland at Baltimore medical school. She has published ~100 scientific papers, and holds 6 patents with 2 additional pending in the fields of microfluidics, biosensors and sensor/flow systems. Some of her honors and awards include the US Department of Commerce Silver Medal, US Department of Commerce Bronze Medal Award, and the National Institute of Standards & Technology Applied Research Award. She is currently the Chair of the Division of Analytical Chemistry of the American Chemical Society. She is also an editorial board member for Annual Reviews in Analytical Chemistry, editorial advisory board member for Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry, and Ex Officio member of the editorial advisory board for the journal Analytical Chemistry.
