Aniruddh Sarkar

Professor Sarkar heads the Micro/Nano Bioelectronics lab which is a curiosity and creativity driven lab broadly interested in inventing and translating technology to make high-quality healthcare more accessible and affordable. Our research exploits microscale and nanoscale physical phenomena, devices and electronics to imagine, invent and engineer accesible technologies for precision biology and medicine. We are primarily a multidisciplinary engineering lab but we work closely with clinicians and biologists across applications in discovery, prevention, diagnostics and therapy of a number of diseases including infectious diseases and cancer.

Some of our current projects are:

1. Microfluidic high-sensitivity and high-throughput bioassays for deep characterization of immune responses. Applications include: Discovery of novel functional biomarkers for some of most widely devastating infectious diseases globally such as Tuberculosis (TB), COVID-19, Hepatitis C and Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTD) such as Schistosomiasis, Leprosy & Onchocerciasis. Helping understand the emergence of anti-microbial resistance (AMR) and discovery of novel biomarkers for its early and inexpensive detection. Discovering novel immune correlates for guiding vaccine design including Influenza vaccines. Understanding variation in response to immunotherapy in cancer and discovery of early biomarkers of treatment failure.

2. Electronic detection and manipulation techniques for various biological objects (e.g. biomolecules, cells)  Applications include: Point-of-care (POC) electronic diagnostics for infectious diseases such as TB & NTDs especially for resource-poor settings. Portable, home-use and wearable diagnostic and monitoring technology in contexts ranging from soil, food and water quality to nutrition, infection, transplant rejection and cancer. Electronic delivery of macromolecules to cells for gene and cell therapy.