NOVEL ANALYTICAL TOOLS FOR BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE

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My research program is mainly concerned with the development of novel highly-enabling analytical approaches for biology and medicine. Modern biology and medicine require sensitive and informative tools to study molecular mechanisms of cellular processes, diagnose diseases via detection of molecular markers, and create mechanism-based drugs. The development of such tools and their application to important biological and medical problems are our main focus. My group works in 4 major areas: (i) single-cell analyses, (ii) kinetic studies of affinity interactions, (iii) analysis of cancer biomarkers, and (iv) integrated reaction/separation/analysis. Since 2010, we have developed a number of highly-enabling analytical approaches in these areas including, but not limited to: (i) macroscopic approach to study kinetics in equilibrium, (ii) aptamer-based control of DNA demethylation, (iii) single-cell-kinetics approach to study cell-population heterogeneity, (iv) highly-sensitive direct analysis of multiple microRNAs, and (v) open-electrolyte free-flow electrophoresis. Over this period, 40 HQP were trained, and the results of their work were published in 70 peer-reviewed papers. In the next 5 years, we will continue curiosity-driven exploratory research in the 4 areas. We will develop novel analytical approaches including: (i) non-arbitrary cytometry, which will allow co-processing cytometry results obtained in different labs, (ii) generic methods for kinetic studies of affinity interactions, which will facilitate studies of protein-protein and protein-small-molecule interactions without labeling or immobilizing molecules, (iii) rugged methods for biomarker validation, which will facilitate cancer subtyping and contribute to the development of personalized cancer medicine, and (iv) non-orthogonal free-flow electrophoresis, which will allow high-efficiency continuous purification of difficult-to-separate molecules, and, in combination with in-flow synthesis and in-flow analysis, will significantly speed-up production of drug leads. Our NSERC Discovery research will remain highly interdisciplinary, ranging from chemistry to biology and from physics to mathematics. Many projects will be carried out in collaboration with other academic groups, R&D companies, and research hospitals. The Discovery grant will support steady-state training of 11-12 HQPs (3-4 undergrads, 7 grads and 1 PDF) in this interdisciplinary and collaborative research. We anticipate that the results of our basic research will create new knowledge in analytical chemistry, physical chemistry, molecular biology, cell biology, and other fields of study. We also expect that our discoveries will promote application-driven research, which, in turn, will lead to creation of new, rapid, and sensitive diagnostics and more effective treatments for complex diseases, such as cancer.