Favour Nwachukwu

Stroke remains a leading cause of disability and cause of death in the US with stroke-related cost in the United States amounting to about $53 billion. In the Soper lab, the aim with the stroke project is to develop a microfluidic device that utilizes relevant RNA sources from EVs for highly multiplexed RNA detection for timely stroke diagnosis. We intend to use the gene profile of EVs released by CD15 Neutrophils and monocyte to detect AIS. Emerging from this project will be an integrated modular system that can provide fully automated operation with the ability to isolate EVs using EV micro affinity purification, count EVs using innovative nano coulter counter, lyse EVs, and reverse transcribe RNA to cDNA to allow quantification by TOF sensing. This is to generate EV-RNA expression data in near real-time to help diagnose AIS or hemorrhagic stroke using circulating markers.