2020 EAC Meeting

The CBM2 Leadership Team and members of the External Advisory Committee met on May 1, 2020, for the annual External Advisory Committee meeting. Due to the unusual circumstances around Covid-19 travel restrictions and social distancing measures, the half-day meeting was held virtually via Zoom.

Participants of the Zoom meeting included 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, Dr. Bill Efcavitch of Molecular Assemblies, Dr. Stefanie Jeffrey of Stanford University, Dr. Bruno Frazier of Georgia Tech University, Dr. Steven Soper of the University of Kansas, Dr. Sunggook Park of Louisiana State University, Dr. Michael Murphy of Louisiana State University, Dr. Andrew Godwin of the University of Kansas Cancer Center, Dr. David Kaufman of the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Mr. Collin McKinney of the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Dr. Adam Hall of Wake Forest University, Dr. Maggie Witek of the University of Kansas, Ms. Lindsey Roe of the University of Kansas, Ms. Swarnagowri Vaidyanathan of the University of Kansas, and Ms. Tatjana Atanasijevic of the NIH/NIBIB. Several postdoctoral associate and graduate student researchers affiliated with CBM2 also listened in on the meeting.

Center Director Dr. Steven Soper began the meeting at 11:00 am CDT with an introductory overview of work accomplished in the last year, followed by a presentation of Microfluidic Modules for Isolating Liquid Biopsy Markers and Plastic Surface Modification from TR&D 1. Graduate student Ms. Swarnagowri Vaidyanathan presented work done in TR&D 2 on Molecular Assays and the Associated Mixed-Scale Chip for Detecting DNA Mutations or RNA Expression, which was followed by a short break. After the break, Dr. Sunggook Park delivered his presentation on Nanosensor Modules Made in Thermoplastics for Single-Molecule Identification from TR&D 3, and Dr. Michael Murphy presented work done in TR&D 4 on System Integration and Assembly. Dr. David Kaufman and Dr. Andrew Godwin teamed up to talk about the Collaborative and Service Projects the Center has been engaged in for the past five years, including brief descriptions of some recent highlight projects. Dr. Maggie Witek shared the Center’s accomplishments and efforts for the last five years in Training & Dissemination.

Following the conclusion of the formal presentations, the EAC members met in a private breakout room session to discuss their thoughts and recommendations for the Center. The meeting ended shortly after 3:00 pm CDT following a discussion between Dr. Soper and the members of the EAC.