News & Events

Programmable DNA Switches And Nanomachines For Rapid Medical Diagnosis And Drug Delivery

Date: 
Thursday, June 13, 2019 - 16:00 to 17:00
Speaker: 
Alexis Vallée-Bélisle, Ph.D.
Affiliation: 
Department of Chemistry, University of Montréal
Event Category: 
External Examiner Seminar
Host: 
Dan Bizzotto
Location: 
Chemistry D200

Bio:

Alexis Vallée-Bélisle is an Associate Professor of Chemistry at Université de Montréal and Canada Research Chair Tier II in Bioengineering and bio-nanotechnology (U. Montréal). His research focuses on recreating complex biochemical mechanisms and mathematically validating them using DNA switches. He also develops various DNA-based nanotechnologies “inspired by Nature” to improve disease diagnosis and to help deliver therapeutic drugs more effectively. He obtained his PhD in Biochemistry in 2008 under the supervision of Steven Michnick at UdeM and his postdoctoral degree in bioengineering under the supervision of Kevin Plaxco at UC Santa Barbara (2012). Vallée-Bélisle is recognized by a CRC, a FRQ career fellowship, and has been named a Canada Rising Star in Global Health (2012). He has received the 2018 UdeM Rector award and the 2019 “Étoile Evervescence” award for his contribution to the Life Science industry. In 2016, he has co-founded Nanogenecs Inc., a Boston and Montreal-based molecular diagnostics company.

 

Abstract:

Natural nanomachines rely on biomolecular switches, biomolecules that undergo binding-induced changes in conformation or oligomerization to transduce chemical information into specific biochemical outputs. Inspired by these systems, we have developed several DNA-based switches and nanomachines that are activated by inputs ranging from temperature and pH, to small molecules (e.g. drugs, explosives) and large macromolecules (e.g. antibodies). These can be, for example, adapted into efficient biosensors that are selective enough to be employed directly in whole blood or into smart molecular transporters for drug delivery applications. In my talk, I will explain how we design and build these nanoswitches and show how a better understanding of natural biomolecular switches significantly helps our efforts to build switches and nanomachines with applications in medicine.