Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
Dr. and Mrs. Charles Dent Williams Professor
Research Areas: Analytical , Biochemistry , Clinical Lab Sciences
Office: 367 Chemistry Building
Lab: 254, 326, and 384 Chemistry Building
Phone: (334) 844-6967
Lab Phone: (334) 844-7472
Email: chris.easley (at) auburn.edu
Fast, Tiny, Bioanalytical Tools for Dynamic Studies of Endocrine Tissue Function
The Easley laboratory is focused on the development of novel microanalytical techniques that allow us to perform unique experiments on biological systems. Our research is focused on developing microfluidic methods and accompanying small-volume biochemical assays to study secretions from small numbers of cells in the form of intact, primary tissue. We are interested in the consequences of cellular architecture and intercellular connections in tissue-level communication, and we study these effects using new microfluidic methods and customized small-volume (picoliter to nanoliter) assays developed by our lab members.
Debilitating conditions such as diabetes, obesity, and metabolic syndrome are fundamentally linked to the endocrine system, and our laboratory studies two main types of endocrine tissue: pancreatic islets and adipose tissue (fat). Through secretion of insulin, islets have a dominant role in endocrine signaling. Since it is now understood that adipose tissue is an active endocrine organ, we are using our custom microfluidics to capture and measure secretions from both islets and primary adipocytes at high temporal resolution. These methods are helping to improve our currently limited understanding of dynamic small-molecule and hormone secretion from the tissues, the links of secretory function to tissue-level connectivity, and the interplay between the two tissue types.
The second major focus in our lab is to utilize DNA-antibody conjugates and DNA aptamers in cooperative sensing approaches, allowing highly sensitive and selective detection of protein and small molecule analytes from small volumes of sample and with simplified workflow. Depending on the applicaiton, we use various readouts to accomplish the measurements, from standard fluorescence, fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET), custom thermofluorimetric methods (TFA), and electrochemical detection. These unique measurements not only help with sensing on microfluidic devices, but they also are suitable for clinical readouts in human blood.
Overall, research in our laboratory spans several scientific disciplines, from fundamental analytical chemistry, to molecular and cellular biology, and even some electrical circuit and instrument design. Please visit our RESEARCH WEB PAGE for more details.
Also, check out our Twitter feed @EasleyLab for our latest news and tweets.
Moniruzzaman, M.; Bezerra, A. B.; Mohibullah, M.; Judd, R. L.; Granneman, J. G.; *Easley, C. J., Dynamic sampling from ex vivo adipose tissue using droplet-based microfluidics supports separate mechanisms for glycerol and fatty acid secretion, Lab Chip 2024, published online. https://doi.org/10.1039/D4LC00664J
Kurian, A. S. N.; Mazumder, M. I.; Gurukandure, A.; *Easley, C. J., An Electrochemical Proximity Assay (ECPA) for Antibody Detection Incorporating Flexible Spacers for Improved Performance, Anal. Bioanal. Chem. 2024, published online. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-024-05546-9
Hu, J.; *Easley, C. J., Development of a Mix-and-Read Assay for Human Asprosin using Antibody-Oligonucleotide Probes and Thermofluorimetric Analysis, Anal. Methods 2024, 16, 6057-6063. https://doi.org/10.1039/D3AY01175E
Gurukandure, A.; Somasundaram, S.; Kurian, A. S. N.; Khuda, N.; *Easley, C. J. Building a nucleic acid nanostructure with DNA-epitope conjugates for a versatile electrochemical protein detection platform, Anal. Chem. 2023, 95, 18122–18129. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.analchem.3c03512
Kayirangwa, Y.; Mohibullah, M.; *Easley, C. J., Droplet-based µChopper device with a 3D-printed pneumatic valving layer and a simple photometer for absorbance based fructosamine quantification in human serum, Analyst 2023, 148, 4810-4819. https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2023/an/d3an01149f
Kurian, A. S. N.; Gurukandure, A.; Dovgan, I.; Kolodych, S.; *Easley, C. J. Thermofluorimetric Analysis (TFA) using Probes with Flexible Spacers: Application to Direct Antibody Sensing and to Antibody-Oligonucleotide (AbO) Conjugate Valency Monitoring, Anal. Chem. 2023, 95, 11680–11686. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/acs.analchem.3c01590
Khuda, N.; Somasundaram, S.; Urgunde, A.; *Easley, C. J., Ionic Strength and Hybridization Position Near Gold Electrodes Can Significantly Improve Kinetics in DNA-Based Electrochemical Sensors, ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 2023, 15, 5019–5027. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acsami.2c22741
Khuda, N.; Somasundaram, S.; *Easley, C. J., Electrochemical Sensing of the Peptide Drug Exendin-4 using a Versatile Nucleic Acid Nanostructure, ACS Sens. 2022, 7, 784-789. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acssensors.1c02336
Shi, N.; Mohibullah, M.; *Easley, C. J., Active Flow Control and Dynamic Analysis in Droplet Microfluidics, Annu. Rev. Anal. Chem. 2021, 14, 133-153. https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev-anchem-122120-042627
Bezerra, A. B.; Kurian, A. S. N.; *Easley, C. J., Nucleic-Acid Driven Cooperative Bioassays using Probe Proximity or Split-Probe Techniques, Anal. Chem. 2021, 93, 198-214. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/acs.analchem.0c04364
- invited for 2021 Special Issue: Fundamental and Applied Reviews in Analytical Chemistry
Last updated: 10/08/2024