NOVEL ANALYTICAL TOOLS FOR BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE

我的研究项目主要涉及开发用于生物学和医学的新型高度可行的分析方法。现代生物学和医学需要灵敏和信息丰富的工具来研究细胞过程的分子机制，通过检测分子标记来诊断疾病，并创建基于机制的药物。这些工具的开发及其在重要的生物学和医学问题中的应用是我们的主要关注点。我的团队在4个主要领域工作：（i）单细胞分析，（ii）亲和相互作用的动力学研究，（iii）癌症生物标志物的分析，以及（iv）集成反应/分离/分析。 自2010年以来，我们在这些领域开发了许多高度可行的分析方法，包括但不限于：（i）宏观方法来研究平衡动力学，（ii）基于适配体的DNA去甲基化控制，（iii）单细胞动力学方法来研究细胞群体异质性，（iv）高灵敏度直接分析多种microRNA，以及（v）开放电解质自由流电泳。在此期间，培训了40名HQP，他们的工作成果发表在70篇同行评审论文中。*** * 在未来5年，我们将继续在4个领域进行好奇心驱动的探索性研究。我们将开发新的分析方法，包括：（i）非任意细胞计数，其将允许共处理在不同实验室中获得的细胞计数结果，（ii）用于亲和相互作用的动力学研究的通用方法，其将促进蛋白质-蛋白质和蛋白质-小分子相互作用的研究，而无需标记或固定分子，（iii）用于生物标志物验证的坚固方法，其将促进癌症亚型分型并有助于个性化癌症医学的发展，和（iv）非正交自由流动电泳，其将允许高效率连续纯化难以分离的分子，并且，与流内合成和流内分析相结合，将大大加快毒品线索的生产 * 我们的NSERC发现研究将保持高度跨学科，从化学到生物学，从物理学到数学。许多项目将与其他学术团体、研发公司和研究医院合作开展。发现补助金将支持11-12个HQP（3-4个本科生，7个毕业生和1个PDF）在这个跨学科和合作研究的稳态培训。我们期望我们的基础研究成果将在分析化学，物理化学，分子生物学，细胞生物学和其他研究领域创造新的知识。我们还希望我们的发现将促进应用驱动的研究，这反过来将导致创造新的，快速的，敏感的诊断和更有效的治疗复杂疾病，如癌症。

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.