2019 Team Meeting and EAB Meeting

CBM² researchers from Louisiana State University and the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill traveled to the University of Kansas – Lawrence campus for our annual team meeting on April 15, 2019 in the Kansas Memorial Union. The meeting started Monday morning with breakfast and networking, catching up with friends and colleagues who, for months, only interacted via Zoom meetings, email, and FedEx shipments. Center director, Dr. Steven Soper started the talks with an overview of the past year’s accomplishments and achievements. Following Dr. Soper’s introductory slides, Mr. Aaron Nagel of Digital NanoGenetics (DNG) presented some general information about the start-up company and then described one of DNG’s collaborative projects with the Center on single-molecule sequencing. Other talks given in the morning included Ms. Harshani Wijerathne’s presentation on a collaborative project with Dr. Alison Baird at SUNY Downstate Medical Center about extracellular vesicles for stroke diagnostics, Ms. Swanragowri Vidyanathan’s presentation on nanosensors, Dr. Lulu Zhang’s presentation on solid phase biological reactions, Dr. Sunggook Park’s presentation on nanoscale fabrication, and Ms. Kavya Dathathreya’s presentation on fabrication techniques. After the morning session, the group enjoyed lunch and a poster session. The afternoon session included Dr. Daniel Park’s presentation on fabrication of mixed-scale sensors and Mr. Xiaoxiao Zhao’s presentation on interconnects and superhydrophobic surfaces. At the end of the team meeting, the group gathered for a reception in the Kansas Union and an opportunity to continue their collegial camaraderie and unwind before the next day’s External Advisory Board meeting.

On Tuesday, April 16, 2019, we welcomed four External Advisory Board members in person – Dr. Paul Bohn of the University of Notre Dame, Dr. Rich Superfine of the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Dr. Bruce Gale of the University of Utah, and Dr. Bill Efcavitch of Molecular Assemblies. Two External Advisory Board members, Dr. Stefanie Jeffrey of Stanford University and Dr. Bruno Frazier of Georgia Tech University, joined remotely. Also in attendance of the meeting were Dr. Andrew Godwin from the University of Kansas Medical Center, Dr. Daniel T. Chiu from the University of Washington, and Dr. Subhrajit Saha from the University of Kansas Medical Center. The closed-session EAB meeting began with breakfast and networking among the CBM² leadership, EAB members, and collaborators, followed by talks by CBM² faculty. Dr. Steven Soper updated the EAB on the Center’s accomplishments and status, as well as presented work done in TR&D 1 – isolation of circulating markers and extracellular vesicles. Dr. Maggie Witek presented work done in TR&D 2 with solid phase biological reactions and spLDRs. Dr. Sunggook Park and Mr. Collin McKinney teamed up to present TR&D 3 nanofabrication, nanosensor and electrophoresis, as well as electronics and data analysis. The final talk of the morning before lunch was Dr. Michael Murphy’s presentation of TR&D 4 modular and mixed-scale systems. The EAB members and CBM² leadership team were joined for lunch by graduate students and postdoctoral researchers from the LSU and KU research groups. After lunch, the EAB members attended a poster session, where they listened to the graduate students and postdocs present their research. Following lunch, the EAB members and leadership team reconvened in the closed-session for afternoon talks including Dr. Maggie Witek’s presentation of training and dissemination efforts, Dr. David Kaufman’s presentation of collaboration and service projects, and presentations given by two of our collaborators, Dr. Daniel T. Chiu and Dr. Subhrajit Saha, explaining how they are using CBM² technology in their research. The EAB meeting concluded with a private session and discussion between the external advisory board members and Drs. Soper and Kaufman.

The 2019 team meeting and EAB meeting were a success, and we are already looking forward to the 2020 meetings…and hopefully a phase 2 renewal!