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Analytical Chemistry Seminar Series: Yingfu Li – McMaster University
September 29, 2023 | 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm
About the Seminar:
Title:
Biosensing with Functional Nucleic Acids for Environmental, Food, Animal and Human Pathogens
Abstract:
Rapid and sensitive detection of specific pathogens is vital for protecting and improving human health. Current detection methods oftentimes lack the means to detect infectious pathogens in a simple, rapid, and reliable manner at the time and point of need. Functional nucleic acids (FNAs) – specifically DNA aptamers and DNAzymes – have the potential to overcome these limitations by acting as key components for point-of-care (POC) biosensors due to their distinctive advantages that include high binding affinities and specificities, excellent chemical stability, ease of synthesis and modification, and compatibility with a variety of signal-amplification and signal-transduction mechanisms. In this presentation, I will discuss the work completed in my laboratory, in collaboration with several other groups at McMaster University in Canada, towards developing simple-to-implement analytical devices with integrated FNAs and nanomaterials to detect bacterial and viral pathogens, such as E. coli, Legionella pneumophila, Fusobacterium nucleatum, SARS-CoV-2, porcine epidemic diarrhea virus, directly in environmental or clinical samples.
About the Speaker:
Bio:
Yingfu Li is a Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences at McMaster University. He earned a PhD in Biochemistry from Simon Fraser University in 1997 and his PhD work won him Governor General of Canada Academic Gold Medal and Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Doctoral Prize. He carried out his postdoctoral research at Yale University between 1997-1999 with a fellowship from Medical Research Council of Canada. In November 1999, he joined McMaster University as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences, was promoted to a Full Professor by 2010. He has published extensively on functional nucleic acids, including ~300 research papers, review articles, and book chapters. He has also served as an Associate Editor of Journal of Molecular Evolution and Co-Editor-in-Chief of Advanced Agrochem. He has received many recognitions, including Canada Research Chair, New Investigator Award from the Canadian Institute of Health Research, Premier Research Excellent Award from Ontario Government, McBryde Medal from Canadian Society of Chemistry.
To learn more, visit the Li Research Group website.