Dr. Sheila M. Barros
- Post-Doctoral Researcher
Contact Info
Biography —
Postdoctoral researcher with background in Biochemistry, Physiology and Molecular Biophysics. Work history in Nanobiotechnology with emphasis on the study of Peptide Nanoparticles, Nano-formulation, and α-HL Nanopore Sensing. Currently working in the field of Biomedical Engineering focusing on the development of a new hardware and assay for single-molecule DNA detection for stroke diagnostic and gene therapy.
Dr. Barros received her PhD degree in Biochemistry and Physiology from the Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE) in Brazil in 2016 while working on a project developed at Kansas State University (KSU) through the Program Science without Borders, with focus on the characterization of a Peptide Nanocarrier, now available on the market through Phoreus Biotechnology, Inc. called Branched amphiphilic peptide capsules (BAPC™) comprising of peptide nanospheres self-assembled upon the formation of bi-layer delimited capsules for cell transfection and gene therapy. This study was extended through a Postdoctoral project between 2018-2021 culminating on the development of a new Peptide Encapsulation System for hydrophobic drugs resulting in two international patent submissions of a new product currently commercialized by Phoreus under the name of Corralling Amphipathic Peptide Colloids (CAPC™).
Research —
Currently, Dr. Barros work as a Postdoctoral researcher at Chemistry Department of The University of Kansas as a member of Dr. Steven Soper’s lab, participating in two main projects involving lab-on-a-chip (LOC) technology, with emphasis on the studies of thermoplastic nanochips that uses resistive pulse sense technique (RPS) consisting of dual in plane nanopore in a micro/nanochip system, capable of providing electrical readout by identifying and discriminating single molecules.
The first project is dedicated to the development of a modular fluidic cartridge based on a label-free nanosensor with high multiplexing capabilities and near real time interrogation of EV-associated mRNA biomarkers, with electrical readouts for rapid “stroke diagnostic” while the second project addresses the shortcomings of existing technology using nano-pore techniques to develop sensing platforms for “detection and quantification of defective Adeno-associated virus (AAV) particles”, commonly used in gene therapy.