Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

My research program is concerned with the development of novel analytical approaches for biology and medicine. Modern biology and medicine require sensitive and informative tools for (i) studies of molecular mechanisms of cellular processes, (ii) diagnosis of diseases at the molecular level, and (iii) creating new mechanisms-based drugs. The development of such tools and their application to important biological and medical problems are our focus. The group works in 6 directions: (i) kinetic studies of affinity interactions, (ii) aptamer development, (iii) aptamer-facilitated technologies, (iv) chemical analyses of single cells, (v) miniaturized analyses in capillary microreactors, and (vi) selection of smart drug candidates. We have already developed a number of highly enabling analytical approaches in these areas, including Kinetic Capillary Electrophoresis (KCE), Aptamer-facilitated Biomarker Discovery (AptaBiD), Aptamer-facilitated Protein Isolation from Cells (AptaPIC), Inject-Mix-React-Separate-and-Quantitate"" (IMReSQ), and Non-orthogonal Free-Flow Electrophoresis. Over the last 5 years, more than 50 HQP were trained while conducting this innovative research. The results of their work were published in 40+ peer reviewed papers, cited over 900 times. The majority of our previous research dealt with proof-of-principle projects, which involved mainly in-vitro experimentation. In the next 5 years, we will continue curiosity-driven exploratory research in the 6 directions. We will also start transferring our analytical approaches to their in-vivo stage involving cells, tissues, and laboratory animals. In particular, we will extend our research program into a new direction - the study of aptamers as probes for imaging diseased cells in the body. Our NSERC Discovery research will remain highly interdisciplinary, stretching from chemistry to biology and from physics to mathematics. Eights graduate students in 3 graduate programs (Chemistry, Biology, and Physics) and 2 PDFs will be trained. We anticipate that the results of our research will facilitate the creation of new rapid and sensitive diagnostics and effective treatments for complex diseases, such as cancer and neurodegenerative disorders.