Publications

Biotechnology development for biomedical applications

Rempe, Susan R.; Rogers, David M.; Buerger, Stephen B.; Kuehl, Michael K.; Hatch, Anson H.; Abhyankar, Vinay V.; Mai, Junyu M.; Dirk, Shawn M.; Brozik, Susan M.; De Sapio, Vincent D.; Schoeniger, Joseph S.

Sandia's scientific and engineering expertise in the fields of computational biology, high-performance prosthetic limbs, biodetection, and bioinformatics has been applied to specific problems at the forefront of cancer research. Molecular modeling was employed to design stable mutations of the enzyme L-asparaginase with improved selectivity for asparagine over other amino acids with the potential for improved cancer chemotherapy. New electrospun polymer composites with improved electrical conductivity and mechanical compliance have been demonstrated with the promise of direct interfacing between the peripheral nervous system and the control electronics of advanced prosthetics. The capture of rare circulating tumor cells has been demonstrated on a microfluidic chip produced with a versatile fabrication processes capable of integration with existing lab-on-a-chip and biosensor technology. And software tools have been developed to increase the calculation speed of clustered heat maps for the display of relationships in large arrays of protein data. All these projects were carried out in collaboration with researchers at the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, TX.