Events

MRI Seminar "Designer DNA nanostructures for virus sensing and inhibition", Dr Xing Wang, Uni. Illinois

Date: Wednesday 20 October 2021 15:00 - 16:00

Location: teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_NjE0MDZhMT...

Title: Designer DNA nanostructures for virus sensing and inhibition

By Xing Wang

October 20th, 2021

Abstract: Emerging and re-emerging viral diseases present significant threats to public health, as witnessed by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic revealed fundamental limitations in the current paradigm for infectious disease diagnosis and treatment. In this talk, I will mainly discuss our recent efforts to create customized designer DNA nanostructures for the development of inexpensive and ultrasensitive biosensors for the rapid and early detection of dengue or SARS-CoV-2 virus, and of therapeutic candidates for virus inhibition.

Bio: Dr. Xing Wang directs the Nucleic Acids Programming Lab at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). He received a Ph.D. from New York University, working with Dr. Ned Seeman to build functional DNA motifs in biology. Dr. Wang co-directs the Center for Pathogen Diagnostics at UIUC since 2020. He is a recipient of the Mikashi Awards in 2021. Dr. Wang is the inventor of the "DNA Star" platform. His research group engineers designer DNA nanostructures (DDN) that offer a plug-and-play platform to create functional nanomaterials with aptamers, peptides/nanobodies, or quantum dots for developing ultrasensitive and inexpensive biosensors for rapid disease diagnosis, effective therapeutic candidates for disease treatment/prevention, and new strategies and reagents for high resolution bioimaging. Dr. Wang’s research group is currently supported by NIBIB, NIAID, NIDCR, NIAAA, NSF, ZJU-UIUC DREMES Center, and CSL Behring.