Paul Yager's Biography

Paul Yager, Professor, Department of Bioengineering, University of Washington and CSO, UbiDX, Inc.

Paul Yager, Ph.D., is a professor in the Department of Bioengineering at the University of Washington and the CSO, UbiDX, Inc. A native of Manhattan, he received his A.B. in Biochemistry from Princeton in 1975, and a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Oregon in 1980, specializing in vibrational spectroscopy of biomolecules. After an NRC Fellowship at the Naval Research Laboratory (1980-1982), he joined the NRL staff as a Research Chemist. He moved to the Center (now Department) of Bioengineering at the University of Washington as Associate Professor in 1987, advancing to Professor in 1995; he served as Chair of the department from 2007 to 2013. Initially working on both self-organizing lipid microstructure and optically-based biomedical sensors, since 1992 his lab has focused primarily on development of microfluidics for the analysis of biological fluids for use in low-cost point-of-care biomedical diagnostics for the developed and developing worlds. From 2005-2010 a team led by Yager was supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to develop a low-cost rugged point-of-care system for pathogen identification. Since 2008, most lab activity (with several close partners) has focused on developing two-dimensional porous networks for ultra-low-cost instrument-free point-of-care pathogen identification for human diagnosis. Readout is often coupled with cell phones for quantitative analysis and data transmission; this has been under support of NIH, NSF, DARPA and DTRA. He has authored 156 research publications in refereed journals, and has 40 issued patents. Specifics are at http://faculty.washington.edu/yagerp/.

Developing Diagnostic Technologies for the Home-based Healthcare Paradigm

Tuesday, 14 December 2021 at 15:00

Add to Calendar ▼2021-12-14 15:00:002021-12-14 16:00:00Europe/LondonDeveloping Diagnostic Technologies for the Home-based Healthcare ParadigmPoint-of-Care Diagnostics and Biosensors 2021 in Coronado Island, CaliforniaCoronado Island, CaliforniaSELECTBIOenquiries@selectbiosciences.com

For decades, testing of human samples for acute and chronic diseases has been in centralized laboratories where tests were carried out by trained technicians or by large robotic instruments capable of batch processing hundreds of tests. Since 2008 the Yager lab at UW has, under support of NIH, NSF, DARPA, the UW Army and DTRA, focused on low-cost point-of-care biomedical diagnostics using two-dimensional porous networks (“paper microfluidics") for ultra-low-cost point-of-care pathogen identification. Novel approaches to both on-device nucleic acid amplification and sensitive protein detection were developed and reduced to practice. The COVID-19 pandemic, and the restriction of large portions of the world’s population to their homes has opened up new markets for many types of rapid home testing. It has also exposed people to the long-term possibilities for medical testing at home. Like many of our colleagues, for the last year (under support of WRF and the Emergent Ventures Rapid Grant), our lab has pivoted to address the pandemic by focusing on a respiratory pathogen panel that incudes SARS-CoV-2. The goal is a rapid semiquantitative validated highly-sensitive multiplexed nucleic acid test using isothermal amplification that can be stored for months at room temperature, but deliver results to an untrained home user (and perhaps also to public health authorities) from a nasal swab within 30 minutes. We will show our latest results.

The ability to detect and quantify a wide range of pathogens within an hour of sample acquisition opens up a range of health monitoring opportunities. By coupling low-cost disposables with an optical reader, it is possible to have a home-based system to detect a wide of range of conditions beyond acute infections, allowing putting an integrated system for health maintenance in the home (or any POC setting) at low cost. This approach is being commercialized by a new company, UbiDX.

Add to Calendar ▼2021-12-13 00:00:002021-12-15 00:00:00Europe/LondonPoint-of-Care Diagnostics and Biosensors 2021Point-of-Care Diagnostics and Biosensors 2021 in Coronado Island, CaliforniaCoronado Island, CaliforniaSELECTBIOenquiries@selectbiosciences.com

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