Soper Group Hosts Tour at Gray-Little Hall During Economic Development Group Visit

A large screen displays the text "KU's workforce drives the economy by meeting regional needs" behind the tour group

Thu, 06/12/2025

Jo Sabus

LAWRENCE – June 4, 2025. Last week, the Kansas Department of Commerce (KDOC) brought an international delegation to the University of Kansas for an Industry Engagement Visit. Consul Generals and other representatives from the United Arab Emirates, Mexico, Germany, Czech Republic, Taipei, and Ireland toured facilities at the Lawrence Campus and attended presentations on research endeavors at KU.

Governor Laura Kelly shakes hands with Chancellor Doug Girod, members of the tour stand behind them — University of Kansas Chancellor Doug Girod welcomes Governor Laura Kelly to Gray-Little Hall.

Laura Kelly gives a stands at a podium with a microphone in hand — Governor Kelly addresses the Economic Development Group.

Also in attendance were Kansas Governor Laura Kelly and Chancellor Doug Girod, who welcomed the group to the KU campus. During her address, Governor Kelly highlighted the importance of university research to the regional—and international—economy.

Delegates toured the cleanrooms of Gray-Little Hall before attending a presentation from members of the Soper Research Group. Dr. Steven Soper of the Center of BioModular Multi-Scale Systems for Precision Medicine (CBM²) lead the discussion, which focused on CBM²'s international connections through academic and industry partners such as ROCHE, Shimadzu, and Waters.

A group of audience members sit in a line, each observing a small plastic chip distributed during the presentation — Delegates observe samples of microfluidic plastic chips developed at the Center of BioModular Multi-Scale Systems for Precision Medicine.

Other members of the Soper Group discussed specific projects within CBM². Postdoctoral researcher Dr. Sheila Barros and Dr. Katie Childers, who recently obtained her PhD from KU Mechanical Engineering, demonstrated prototype systems for early cancer detection and point-of-care stroke diagnosis respectively.

Graduate research assistants from the group also discussed their projects. Favour Nwachukwu further elucidated the collaboration between CBM² and SUNY Downstate, which seeks to discover new markers for Stroke diagnosis, while Suresh Shivanka covered research into protein biomarkers for cancer detection, previously presented at the KU 3MT® Competition.

In addition to Soper Group members, Dr. Dominique de Kleijn, University Medical Center Utrecht, joined the presentation via Zoom to discuss collaborative research with CBM² in discovering markers for cardiovascular disease in blood samples.

This tour was part of a larger Industry Engagement Visit attended by the delegates, which included multiple campus facilities across a variety of disciplines.