PHIND Seminar Series: Towards precision diagnostic and prediction of food allergy
Sindy KY Tang, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment and Professor, by courtesy, of Radiology – PHIND Center
Stanford University
Location: Zoom
Webinar URL: https://stanford.zoom.us/s/91932966334
Dial: US: +1 650 724 9799 or +1 833 302 1536 (Toll Free)
Webinar ID: 919 3296 6334
Passcode: 383071
11:00am – 12:00pm Seminar & Discussion
RSVP Here
ABSTRACT
Food allergy has reached epidemic proportions. Accurate in vitro methods that are efficient and easy to use to identify offending food allergens are lacking. Oral food challenge, the gold standard for food allergy assessment, is often not performed as it places the patient at risk of anaphylaxis. As such, food allergy is often identified only after an adverse reaction that could be life-threatening. Our long-term goal is to develop a food allergy diagnostic test that is accurate, safe, rapid, and accessible, so that food allergy can be easily identified prior to the occurrence of an adverse reaction, and that the efficacy of immunotherapy for food allergy can be tracked more effectively. This talk will discuss our recent work on developing such a test. Our approach is based on the Basophil Activation Test (BAT), which measures the activation of basophils in whole blood after stimulation with specific food allergens ex vivo. The BAT has been shown to be highly predictive of allergic reactions. However, the need for flow cytometry has limited its broader use. We are developing a miniaturized, standalone version of the BAT. We envision that the test can be used at the point of care, such as the doctor’s office or at a local pharmacy.
ABOUT
Prof. Sindy KY Tang is the Kenneth and Barbara Oshman Faculty Scholar and Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering and by courtesy of Radiology (Precision Health and Integrated Diagnostics) at Stanford University. She received her Ph.D. from Harvard University in Engineering Sciences under the supervision of Prof. George Whitesides. Her lab at Stanford works on the fundamental understanding of fluid mechanics and mass transport in micro-nano systems, and the application of this knowledge towards problems in biology, rapid diagnostics for health and environmental sustainability. The current areas of focus include the flow physics of confined micro-droplets using experimental and machine learning methods, interfacial mass transport and self-assembly, and ultrahigh throughput opto-microfluidic systems for disease diagnostics, water and energy sustainability, and single-cell wound healing studies. She was a Stanford Biodesign Faculty Fellow in 2018. Dr. Tang’s work has been recognized by multiple awards including the NSF CAREER Award, 3M Nontenured Faculty Award, the ACS Petroleum Fund New Investigator Award, and invited lecture at the Nobel Symposium on Microfluidics in Sweden. Website: http://web.stanford.edu/group/tanglab/
Hosted by: Garry Gold, M.D.
Sponsored by the PHIND Center and the Department of Radiology