Shannon Weigum

Courses

Functional Biology (BIO 1330)
Cell Biology of Cancer (BIO 4350A)

Research Interests

Our research addresses the clinical need for rapid diagnostic tests in developing countries and other resource-poor settings where the high cost and lack of laboratory equipment, infrastructure, and skilled personnel present barriers to proper disease prevention and treatment. Microfluidic sensors, also known as lab-on-a-chip devices, offer unique opportunities to address these challenges. Their small feature size (0.1 µm – 100 µm) enables lower consumption of costly reagents, shorter reaction times, and permits multiple laboratory processes to be completed on a single platform. The long-term goal of our research is to develop simple, patterned microfluidic devices for diagnostic bioassays (whole-cell, protein, and nucleic acid) which are rapid, inexpensive, and can be deployed at the point-of-care. 

Selected Publications

Rohde, R.E., Weigum, S., and McGowin, C. 2017. Nucleic Acid-Based Analytic Methods for Microbial Identification and Characterization. Bailey & Scott’s Diagnostic Microbiology, 14th ed.  P. Tille, Elsevier Inc., Philidelphia, PA.

Weigum, S.E., McIvor, E., Munoz, C., Feng, R., Cantu, T., Walsh, K., and Betancourt, T. 2016. Targeted therapy of hepatocellular carcinoma with aptamer-functionalized biodegradable nanoparticles. J. of Nanoparticle Research18:341-352.

Weigum, S.E., Xiang, L., Osta, E., Li, A., and López, G. 2016. Hollow silica microspheres for buoyancy-assisted separation of infectious pathogens from stool. Journal of Chromatography A. 1466:29-36.

Xiang, L., Z. Wang, Z. Liu, S. E. Weigum, Q. Yu and M. Y. Chen. 2016. Inkjet-Printed Flexible Biosensor Based on Graphene Field Effect Transistor. IEEE Sensors Journal 16:8359-8364.

Weigum, S.E., Sutton, M. Barnes, E., Miller, S. and Betancourt, T. 2014. Targeting hepatocellular carcinoma with aptamer-functionalized PLGA/PLA-PEG nanoparticles. Proc. SPIE. 9166, Biosensing and Nanomedicine VII, 916605.

Pierce, M.C., Weigum, S.E., Jaslove, J.M., Richards-Kortum R., Tkaczyk, T.S. 2014. Optical systems for point-of-care diagnostic instrumentation: Analysis of imaging performance and cost. Ann. Biomed. Eng. 42:231-240.

Weigum, S.E., Castellanos-Gonzalez, A., White, A.C. Jr., and Richards-Kortum, R. 2013. Amplification-free detection of Cryptosporidium nucleic acids using DNA/RNA-directed gold nanoparticle assemblies. J. Parasitology 99:923-926.

Please see faculty member’s CV or website for a complete list of publications and additional information.