Alexis Sauer-Budge's Biography

Alexis Sauer-Budge, Biotechnology Managing Scientist, Exponent, Inc., Adjunct Research Assistant Professor, Biomedical Engineering Dept, Boston University

Dr. Sauer-Budge received her B.S./M.S. in Chemistry from Stanford University and her Ph.D. in Biophysics from Harvard University. While at Harvard, she worked on developing methods for studying and controlling the passage of DNA through biological nanopores in the laboratory of Professor Daniel Branton. After completing her Ph.D., she joined a start-up company BioScale, Inc. developing infectious disease and protein diagnostics on bioMEMS resonating membrane platform technology. Dr. Sauer-Budge joined Fraunhofer CMI in 2007 to lead their biomedical group. Her research portfolio includes rapid diagnostics (point-of-care, microfluidics, biosensors, assay development), tissue engineering (bio-printing), medical devices (multi-functional surgical tools and wearable monitors), and bench-top instrumentation. Some of her recent projects include design and development integrated lab-on-a-chip molecular diagnostics for pathogen detection from physiological samples, isolation of pathogens from blood for integration with novel surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy that enables strain specificity, novel methods for rapid antibiotic susceptibility detection within minutes, novel surgical tools and coatings for implantable devices, wearable chemotherapy monitors, and handheld drug detection systems. Dr. Sauer-Budge also manages the beta-prototyping core for the NIH Center for Future for Technologies in Cancer Care - a translational research and engineering programs.

Dr. Sauer-Budge is currently Biotechnology Managing Scientist, Exponent, Inc.

Rapid Sample to Answer Antibiotic Susceptibility Testing for Bacteremia

Tuesday, 3 October 2017 at 14:30

Add to Calendar ▼2017-10-03 14:30:002017-10-03 15:30:00Europe/LondonRapid Sample to Answer Antibiotic Susceptibility Testing for BacteremiaPOC Diagnostics, Global Health-Viral Diseases 2017 in Coronado Island, CaliforniaCoronado Island, CaliforniaSELECTBIOenquiries@selectbiosciences.com

Disease causing microbes that have become resistant to drug therapy are an increasing public health problem. Factors contributing to the rise in antibiotic resistance include widespread and inappropriate prescription of broad-spectrum antibiotics and patient non-compliance to antibiotic regimens. Bloodstream infections, which can lead to sepsis are of particular concern as they represent a serious and growing health burden (9% of all deaths in the US). Despite exhaustive research and development into rapid diagnostics, the leading technologies still require significant time from blood draw to susceptibility results. The major challenge of diagnosing blood-borne pathogens and prescribing the appropriate antibiotic is that the microbes are present in low concentrations in blood (often 10 CFU/mL). Hence, amplification and isolation of the pathogens prior to drug susceptibility testing is required. This talk will describe a novel and rapid sample preparation methodology that efficiently isolates microorganisms directly from whole blood and entirely circumvents the need for traditional blood culture. The process takes about 30 min and maintains the viability of the pathogens for downstream live processing while reducing the 10 mL blood sample into a less than 30 µL volume. Additionally, we have developed a microfluidic platform with which we have shown that shear stress can cause irreparable damage to susceptible but not resistant strains. Thus, we are able to accurately assign antibiotic susceptibility profiles without waiting for bacterial growth (entire assay 1-2.5 h depending on the antibiotic tested).

Add to Calendar ▼2017-10-02 00:00:002017-10-04 00:00:00Europe/LondonPOC Diagnostics, Global Health-Viral Diseases 2017POC Diagnostics, Global Health-Viral Diseases 2017 in Coronado Island, CaliforniaCoronado Island, CaliforniaSELECTBIOenquiries@selectbiosciences.com

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