Biography
Dr. Siu Yee New
Dr. Siu Yee New
School of Pharmacy, University of Nottingham Malaysia (UNM), Malaysia
Title: DNA Polymer Based Fluorogenic Nanosensor
Abstract: 
DNA is a highly programmable biopolymer used in nanosensor development. Particularly, DNA-templated silver nanoclusters (AgNCs) provide a versatile fluorescent probe in bioimaging and biosensing fields.1 To make the sensor even more sensitive, one can further integrate the DNA-AgNCs with a non-enzymatic nucleic acid amplification method, such as hybridization chain reaction (HCR), to detect minute amounts of analytes. However, the huge possibilities of DNA sequence permutations, as well as the complication to combine these biomolecules at nano-level, may lead to circuit leakage and unpredictable fluorescence performance. Herein, we have demonstrated how different formulation of DNA-AgNCs would affect the sensor performance.2,3 We have also designed a few HCR-AgNCs based sensors with computational aids for different biomarker detection.4 Combining their simplicity in performance and label-free feature, these DNA-based nanosensors hold great potential in clinical studies and point-of-care diagnostics.

Keywords: 

DNA, silver nanoclusters, fluorescent, biomarker, hybridization chain reaction


Biography: 
Siu Yee is an associate professor in the School of Pharmacy, University of Nottingham Malaysia. She obtained her PhD from Department of Chemistry, National University of Singapore and spent a year of lab attachment at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). After graduated, she worked as Scientist in Institute of Materials Research and Engineering (A*Star), Singapore, before joining the academic field. Siu Yee's research focuses on development of nanosensors for bio-application, specialized in biotemplated-metal nanoclusters and metal nanoparticles. Her previous involvement in cross-disciplinary and industrial project has sparked her interest particularly in the field of cancer biomarker detection. Siu Yee has recently won the 2021 L’Oréal UNESCO Fellowship for Women in Science.