Alumni
PhD ’16, MIT
BS, Chemical Engineering
Cornell University
Research
Polymerization-based amplification (PBA) is a biosensing method that integrates biorecognition events, surface immobilization and free radical polymerization processes all into a single system. It has been shown to be highly specific and sensitive, and is able to detect minute amounts of surface-bound target analytes and generate an amplified response that is easily distinguishable to the unaided eye in the form of a polymer film localized to the surface region where the target analyte is bound to the surface-attached biorecognition moiety.
Despite considerable efforts in extending the applicability of the PBA concept, there is still a lack of understanding of the mechanisms behind PBA. With the large number of parameters in the PBA scheme, a systematic experimental study of all the variables will require a lot of tedious work and time-consuming trial-and-error. Therefore, it is anticipated that modeling the PBA system will be more resource-efficient while also providing a deeper insight into the underlying processes behind PBA. The PBA reaction can be modeled to obtain numerical data that cannot be obtained experimentally, and further analysis of the resulting data may produce useful trends that predict the effects of modifying experimental conditions. Thus, the modeling efforts aim to gain a rational understanding of major factors that impact the formation of the resulting polymer film as well as provide a basis for the optimization of reaction conditions for the PBA systems.
Publications
Jisam Wong and Hadley D. Sikes. “The impact of continuous oxygen flux in a thin film photopolymerization reaction with peroxy-mediated regeneration of initiator,”Macromolecular Theory and Simulations, 2016, 25 (3): 229-237. DOI: 10.1002/mats.201500098.
Jisam Wong and Hadley D. Sikes. “The impact of continuous oxygen flux in a thin film photopolymerization reaction with peroxy-mediated regeneration of initiator,” Macromolecular Theory and Simulations, 2016, in press.
Jisam Wong, Kaja Kaastrup, Alan Aguirre-Soto and Hadley D. Sikes. “A quantitative analysis of peroxy- mediated cyclic regeneration of eosin in oxygen-rich photopolymerization conditions,” Polymer, 2015, 69: 169–177. DOI:10.1016/j.polymer.2015.05.043.