Hello! My name is Sarah and I’m a third year PhD student supervised by Dr Fang Xie. My research focuses on the medical applications of novel nanomaterials, particularly for ultrasensitive diagnosis. Although my background is primarily physics, my research allows me to span across all the sciences. I have a particular interest in enterprise and innovation and I aim to develop technology solutions that will have a real impact on patients and that can easily be implemented in a clinical setting.
My current work in the Xie group
Our project aim is to combine research in nanotechnology, material science, virology and immunology to deliver robust, highly sensitive and locally deployable assays for coronavirus infection. By harnessing the high sensitivity, our tests should need extremely small sample volumes and allow for rapid analysis. This should be an easy to construct and low-cost system.
Our group has a focus on using fluorescence biosensing, and we incorporate nanomaterials into pre-existing assay methodologies to improve the sensitivity, detection limit and dynamic range. We do this by using a phenomenon known as metal enhanced fluorescence (MEF) to develop plasmonic enhanced assays with superior performance. One of the great things about the materials we are developing is that they are versatile and can be extended for the diagnosis of multiple diseases. For example, our group is also working on sensitive pancreatic cancer diagnosis. We are currently in the process of incorporating our optimised nanomaterials into clinically viable assays and we are hopeful that our technology can be commercialised soon.
Collaborations and support from colleagues
I am primarily working with another PhD student (William Morton) but there are multiple other people we are collaborating with and many others who are being extremely helpful. We have patient samples provided by Professor Graham Taylor in the Faculty of Medicine. In addition to this, the performance of our assays is being compared to the standard ELISA assays by a Cambridgeshire based biotech company as our industry collaborator. Dr Peter Petrov and his group in the Thin Film Technologies Lab (TFT) also continue assist with their facilities. Finally, Professor Peter O’Hare (Faculty of Medicine), is an excellent support, and has been great at providing a breadth of knowledge across virology. Given I came into this with no virology experience, it has definitely been a learning curve.
Skills I have developed during my research
There are many other ways that research in general has also changed and skills we’ve had to learn. Like many others we have had to adapt to taking a more virtual approach to collaboration, which in itself is a new environment and new challenge. I certainly know more about the structure and function of coronaviruses than I ever did before and I’ve had to develop a working knowledge of immunology. Although I am by no means a biologist, it’s certainly been interesting – particularly for SARS-CoV-2 where the information available is still evolving.