11/23/2022
By Kwok Fan Chow

The Kennedy College of Science, Department of Chemistry, invites you to attend a research proposal defense by Keshani Pattiya Arachchillage entitled “Novel Single-molecule Electrical Detection Method with Applications in Cancer and COVID19.” The defense will be held in Olney Hall, Room 520 on Wednesday, December 7 at 12:30 p.m.

Committee Chair:
Prof. Juan Artes Vivancos, Department of Chemistry, University of Massachusetts Lowell

Committee Members:
1) Prof. Valeri Barsegov, Department of Chemistry, University of Massachusetts Lowell
2) Prof. Kwok-Fan Chow, Department of Chemistry, University of Massachusetts Lowell
3) Prof. Jin Xu, Department of Chemistry, University of Massachusetts Lowell

Abstract:
Cancer is one of the most frequent causes of death globally. Blood samples, or other body fluids, can contain cancer biomarkers such as circulating free tumor nucleic acids (ctNA), promising for early cancer detection in liquid biopsies. Detecting ctNA in the blood is challenging because of the low ctNA concentration and the low frequency of mutations compared to wild-type sequences. Nanotechnology bioelectronics methods can help to address this challenge. In particular, the Scanning Tunneling Microscopic (STM)-assisted break junctions method (STM-BJ) has recently allowed the first demonstration of the detection and identification of RNA from E.Coli via single-molecule conductance. This is an ideal emerging technique for liquid biopsy bioelectronics since it is extremely sensitive, specific, and non-invasive.

This work focuses on characterizing ctNAs using the STM-BJ to investigate an effective method for their ultra-sensitive detection in complex samples. The study's central hypothesis is that the sequences of ctNAs can be used to detect cancers by finding their unique electronic fingerprints. We focus the study on KRAS mutations as effective cancer biomarkers. We have already obtained preliminary data for wild-type and mutated RNA sequences for a few candidate cancer biomarkers (Ex: KRAS Exon 2 Wild type, G12V, and G12C mutations). Our initial analysis and the results pave the way for the early detection of bioelectronics fingerprints from biomarkers through liquid biopsy using nanotechnology. The same idea can be applied to other applications such as covid detection. We conducted a comprehensive literature survey and bioinformatics analysis to identify the most appropriate candidate nucleic acid sequences for all human coronaviruses, SARS-Cov2, and other SARS-Cov2 variants such as Delta, Omicron, etc. and obtained some preliminary single-molecule conductance data. This emerging method may allow beginning treatments early, potentially saving many lives from cancer and covid patients in the future.


All interested students and faculty members are invited to attend.