Centennial Visiting Lectureship in Chemistry - Kevin Plaxco

The Analytical and Physical Seminar Series presents: Kevin Plaxco

Centennial Visiting Lectureship in Chemistry 

University of California Santa Barbara

Host: Devleena Samanta

Title: Molecular vital signs: recent advances in in vivo biosensors

Location: WEL 2.122

Refreshments served at 3:15pm

The availability of technologies capable of tracking the levels of drugs, metabolites, and biomarkers in real time in the living body would revolutionize our understanding of health and our ability to detect and treat disease. To this end, recent years have seen the development of Electrochemical Aptamer-based (EAB) sensors, an in vivo molecular sensing strategy supporting seconds- to sub-second resolution, real-time drug and biomarker measurements. Composed of an electrode-bound, redox-reporter-modified aptamer that generates a signal via a binding-induced conformational change, EAB sensors are independent of the chemical reactivity of their targets and thus, unlike, the continuous glucose monitor, they are adaptable to any of a wide range of targets. Consistent with this, to date some two dozen drugs, metabolites, neurotransmitters, and proteins having been successfully measured in the veins, brains, and solid peripheral tissues of live animal models. In this talk, I highlight a number of advances in pharmacology and physiology enabled by this uniquely high-time-resolution, real-time window into the body’s molecular status.