<html xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns:m="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2004/12/omml" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=us-ascii">
<meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 15 (filtered medium)">
<!--[if !mso]><style>v\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
o\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
w\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
.shape {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
</style><![endif]--><style><!--
/* Font Definitions */
@font-face
{font-family:"Cambria Math";
panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;}
@font-face
{font-family:Calibri;
panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4;}
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{margin:0in;
font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;
mso-ligatures:standardcontextual;}
span.EmailStyle17
{mso-style-type:personal-compose;
font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;
color:windowtext;}
.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;
font-size:11.0pt;}
@page WordSection1
{size:8.5in 11.0in;
margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in;}
div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}
--></style><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapedefaults v:ext="edit" spidmax="1026" />
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapelayout v:ext="edit">
<o:idmap v:ext="edit" data="1" />
</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]-->
</head>
<body lang="EN-US" link="#0563C1" vlink="#954F72" style="word-wrap:break-word">
<div class="WordSection1">
<div align="center">
<table class="MsoNormalTable" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="600" style="width:6.25in">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="padding:0in 0in 0in 0in">
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black"><img width="599" height="171" style="width:6.2395in;height:1.7812in" id="Picture_x0020_2" src="cid:image001.png@01DB3448.4277F8D0" alt="Dissertation Defense Announcement at the Cullen College of Engineering"></span><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black;mso-ligatures:none"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<div align="center">
<table class="MsoNormalTable" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" style="background:white">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="padding:30.0pt 15.0pt 7.5pt 15.0pt">
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="margin-bottom:3.75pt;text-align:center;mso-line-height-alt:15.0pt">
<b><span style="font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#C8102E;mso-ligatures:none">Fundamental Mechanisms of Membrane Immunoassays and Application to Rapid Cancer Diagnosis<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="margin-bottom:3.75pt;text-align:center;line-height:15.0pt">
<b><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black;mso-ligatures:none">Maede Chabi</span></b><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;mso-ligatures:none"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="margin-bottom:8.0pt;text-align:center;line-height:16.5pt">
<span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black;mso-ligatures:none">November 19, 2024 – 12 p.m. (CST)<br>
Location: Agrawal Engineering Research Building (AERB), Room 222<br>
<br>
</span><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;mso-ligatures:none"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="margin-bottom:8.0pt;text-align:center;line-height:16.5pt">
<span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black;mso-ligatures:none">Zoom:<br>
</span><span style="color:black;mso-ligatures:none"><a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://uh-edu-cougarnet.zoom.us/j/86104346054?pwd=e14rvwLLLYk6QzOhZRteieo1Pci110.1__;!!LkSTlj0I!B7lU5DsppwyRoieozU9y12ZKffy9glAU3omedRnQ1fhnoAtwYwpQgA0pcwszhEHArm85NUEAmWTdJN21YvnRkjCLiOw$"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#0563C1">https://uh-edu-cougarnet.zoom.us/j/86104346054?pwd=e14rvwLLLYk6QzOhZRteieo1Pci110.1</span></a></span><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black;mso-ligatures:none"><br>
<br>
Meeting ID: 861 0434 6054<br>
Passcode: 309525</span><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;mso-ligatures:none"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="margin-bottom:3.75pt;text-align:center;line-height:16.5pt">
<b><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black;mso-ligatures:none">Committee Chair:</span></b><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black;mso-ligatures:none"><br>
Richard C. Willson, Ph.D. | Jacinta C. Conrad, Ph.D.</span><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;mso-ligatures:none"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="margin-bottom:15.0pt;text-align:center;line-height:16.5pt">
<b><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black;mso-ligatures:none">Committee Members:</span></b><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black;mso-ligatures:none"><br>
Sergey Shevkoplyas, Ph.D. | Katerina Kourentzi, Ph.D. | Kirill Larin, Ph.D. | Ran An, Ph.D. | Rashmi Kanagal-Shamanna, M.D. | Binh Vu, Ph.D.</span><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;mso-ligatures:none"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="padding:0in 15.0pt 15.0pt 15.0pt">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:11.25pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:11.25pt;margin-left:0in;line-height:16.5pt">
<b><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black;mso-ligatures:none">Abstract<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:11.25pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:11.25pt;margin-left:0in;text-align:justify;line-height:16.5pt">
<span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black;mso-ligatures:none">Lateral flow assays are point-of-care analytical platforms that fulfill the demand for rapid, low-cost, and accessible testing platforms for many different applications
including infection diagnostics. However, these platforms struggle with lower sensitivity compared to more elaborate diagnostic tests. We tackled this challenge by introducing a chemiluminescence-based lateral flow assay for highly sensitive detection of COVID-19
in nasal swab clinical matrices. We used HRP and antibody-coupled bacteriophage as LFA reporter particles and an ECL substrate for generating a chemiluminescence signal corresponding to HRP concentration. We were able to achieve a low limit of detection of
25 pg mL<sup>-1</sup> SARS-CoV-2 nucleoprotein spike in a nasal swab extract matrix using a FluorChem system to detect the signals, and 100 pg mL<sup>-1</sup> when integrated with a POC in-house-developed smartphone-based reader. Moreover, we demonstrated
that the smartphone-based phage-LFA can statistically distinguish between the LFA signal from COVID-19 positive (N=15) and negative (N=11) nasal swab samples (p < 0.001). The proposed smartphone-readable phage-LFA technology allows rapid, affordable, and sensitive
detection of COVID-19 and is translatable for other applications.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:11.25pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:11.25pt;margin-left:0in;text-align:justify;line-height:16.5pt">
<span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black;mso-ligatures:none">Despite cancer diagnosis typically not being considered urgent, acute promyelocytic leukemia is a type of cancer that requires urgent diagnosis because it can lead
to death within a few days due to severe hemorrhagic complications. APL is highly treatable and its early detection can enable successful treatment and prevent early death. We responded to the current demand for timely diagnosis of rapidly fatal acute promyelocytic
leukemia (APL) by introducing a sensitive time-resolved fluorescent-based LFA to detect the hallmark of APL, the PML-RAR</span><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Symbol;color:black;mso-ligatures:none">a</span><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black;mso-ligatures:none">
fusion protein, in cell lysate. Our LFA achieved sensitivity sufficient to meet the WHO guideline of detecting at least 20% blasts. We were able to detect at least 10% NB4 cells (promyelocytic blasts) in healthy PBMC and 20% in HL60 AML cell line background.
We also showed the specificity of this LFA by comparing the signal from NB4 APL cell lysate to signals from multiple non-APL cell lines.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:11.25pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:11.25pt;margin-left:0in;text-align:justify;line-height:16.5pt">
<span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black;mso-ligatures:none">Finally, we introduced the use of rapid filtration to allow measurement of the adsorption of biomolecules in porous matrices on the short time scales associated with
lateral flow assays and membrane chromatography, below one second. We studied the adsorption of fluor-dyed IgG molecules in solution to protein A immobilized on a porous membrane. We showed this technology can be utilized to assess the adsorption under various
conditions at timescales not achievable by other methods.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="padding:0in 0in 0in 0in">
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black"><img border="0" width="599" height="82" style="width:6.2395in;height:.8541in" id="Picture_x0020_1" src="cid:image002.png@01DB3448.4277F8D0" alt="Engineered For What's Next"></span><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black;mso-ligatures:none"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:8.0pt;line-height:106%"><span style="mso-ligatures:none"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
</div>
</body>
</html>