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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:
normal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%">PhD defense:</span></b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%"> Zuan-Tao Lin:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:
normal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%">Date and Time:</span></b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%"> Tuesday, July 31, 2018 at 10:00 AM<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:
normal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%">Location:</span></b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%"> SERC 2013<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:
normal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%">Dissertation Chair:</span></b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%"> Dr. Tianfu Wu<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:
normal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%">Title:</span></b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%">
</span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;
line-height:115%;mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri">Polymeric signal amplifiers in biosensing</span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%">Early detection of ultra-low concentrations of biomarkers or environmental toxins in bodyfluids, food or water samples is vital for disease diagnosis, food safety and environmental monitoring. However, traditional
technologies are tedious, time-consuming and require expensive instruments and well-trained personnel. Thus, there is an increasing demand to develop a facile and rapid sensing strategy to overcome these limitations. Signal amplification is important in early
detection. Among these emerging signal amplification methods, polymer based signal amplification is promising due to the structure of polymer and easy chemical modification. In this topic, we developed four types of bioseners for ultrasensitive detection of
biomarker and toxin, as well as monitoring of cell growth.<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">
</b><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>(1)<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">
</b>We fabricated a novel signal cascade strategy via an ultrasensitive polymeric sensing system (UPSS) composed of gold nanoparticle (gNP)-decorated polymers, which enables gNP aggregation in polymeric network and electrical conductance change upon specific
aptamer-based biomolecular recognition. The biomolecular recognition induced polymeric network shrinkage responses as well as dose-dependent responses of the UPSS are validated using <i>in situ</i> real-time atomic-force microscopy, representing the first
instance of real-time detection of biomolecular binding-induced polymer shrinkage in soft matter. (2) We constructed an ultrasensitive biosensor where a C-reactive protein (CRP) aptamers based molecular recognition core, and an
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style:
normal">in situ</i> synthesized conductive polypyrrole nanofiber mesh based signal amplifier were integrated. Serum CRP levels were quantitatively analyzed through monitoring the conductance change caused by polymeric network
shrinkage upon the aptamer-CRP binding. A commercial CRP ELISA kit was used to perform side-by-side measurement of serum CRP in melanoma patients. (3) We prepared a dual-function polymer scaffold containing thermosensitive polymers, silver flakes-decorated
polymers and gNP-decorated polymers to monitor cancer cells growth. This biocompatible polymer scaffold allows cancer cells to grow on it and can detect cancer cells via silver flakes and gNP aggregation in polymeric network and electrical conductance change
upon the cancer cells growth. (4) We fabricated a poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrene sulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) based, highly-responsive flexible composite nanofiber signal amplifier for ultrasensitive detection of IL-17 A. The serum IL-17 A in melanoma
patients was quantified by this sensor.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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