Featuring Aniruddh Sarkar | School of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University

Abstract: The current COVID-19 pandemic and other recent outbreaks such as Ebola, MERS, SARS, and H1N1 have underscored the need for early detection and continued surveillance of emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases. The heterogeneity of disease in COVID-19 – a large number of mild or asymptomatic cases coupled with the relatively rapid degradation in symptoms in some patients – poses a unique challenge for the healthcare system and emphasizes the need for developing predictive biomarkers of disease severity. We are harnessing microscale and nanoscale technology to solve these challenges by developing devices for high-throughput discovery and inexpensive electronic detection of diagnostic & prognostic biomarkers. Here, I will present our progress with these approaches in the context of COVID-19 and beyond.

Bio: Aniruddh Sarkar is an Assistant Professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University where he leads the Micro/Nano Bioelectronics Lab. His research has evolved around the theme of exploiting unique physical phenomena that occur at the micrometer to nanometer length scales to develop devices and systems for solving various technological problems with a special focus on applications in biology and medicine. This includes the development and application of microfabricated and nanofabricated devices for the prevention, diagnosis and therapy of infectious diseases such as COVID-19 and Tuberculosis. He was earlier a Research Fellow at the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT, and Harvard with research affiliations at Harvard Medical School and at MIT. He received his Ph.D. in electrical engineering and computer science with a minor in biology at MIT, developing microfluidic tools for single-cell analysis. He received his bachelors and master’s degrees, both in electrical engineering at IIT Bombay.