講者：賴志遠教授 演講題目：Smart Conjugates for Efficient Biomolecule Separations and Their Clinical Applications 演講時間：11/4（五）15:30~17:20 演講地點：博雅館 201 主持人：蔡偉博教授 Brief Biography Dr. James Lai currently serves as a Research Associate Professor in the Department of Bioengineering at the University of Washington. He did part of his college education in Taiwan at National Taipei Institute of Technology. He received his B.S. and Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from University of Minnesota and Polytechnic University (the current NYU Tandon School of Engineering), respectively. Prior to the current faculty position, he was a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Department of Bioengineering at University of Washington. The focus of Dr. Lai’s research is the development of molecular reagents for enabling efficient immunoprecipitation and sensitive biomarker detection. The overall objective is to improve clinical assays’ sensitivity, specificity, throughput, and multiplexing capability. These new reagent systems have been used in conjunction with various analytical technologies to facilitate the corresponding diagnostic applications, including but not limited to cancer and infectious diseases. Dr. Lai started his faculty career in 2009 at the University of Washington. His in vitro diagnostics research program has been recognized with the appointment of conference planning group/session chair for the 2012 AACC Oak Ridge Conference. Dr. Lai has a strong interest in translating the group’s research, has been awarded multiple patents, and is a co-founder of the company Nexgenia Inc. based on their cell therapy and diagnostic work. Title Smart Conjugates for Efficient Biomolecule Separations and Their Clinical Applications Abstract Clinical tests such as immunoassay have been utilized for patient diagnosis to improve health care. Immunoprecipitation is employed for isolating biomarkers from complex body fluids because high analytical sensitivity is achieved by maximizing signal and minimizing noise – high signal-to-noise ratio. The mainstream immunoassays utilize antibodies immobilized on solid supports for biomarker recognition and separation, leading to long assay time and compromised detection limit. To address the challenge, our group has developed stimuli-responsive, “smart” conjugates for enabling rapid and highly efficient immunoprecipitation. The conjugates such as antibodies grafted with smart polymers respond sharply and reversibly to environmental stimuli (e.g., temperature shift) by transitioning between hydrophilic and hydrophobic states. These conjugates overcome the mass transport limitations associated with the heterogeneous immunoassays, using solid supports with immobilized antibodies, by enabling biomarker recognition in a homogeneous solution. Therefore, the assays’ detection limit and time can be significantly improved. We have demonstrated that the immunoprecipitation using smart conjugates can isolate target analytes (e.g., proteins) from various human specimens, including serum, urine, etc. The exisitng analytical technologies can be used to detect the analytes purified via smart conjugates. Additionally, the reagent system is scalable to larger starting specimen volumes, which concentrate dilute biomarkers, thus improving detection ranges and broadening diagnostic utilities. These conjugates can potentially improve in vitro diagnostics by enabling rapid and highly efficient immunoprecipitation to improve biomarker detection limit for infectious disease and cancer diagnosis.