Xuyan Lin
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Xuyan LIN (Yannis) is a post-doctoral research fellow at HKUST, who currently works on microfluidic systems for cellular analysis. Before joining the division of life science, Yannis received her Ph.D. in Chemistry from HKUST in the field of miniaturized analytical chemistry by integrating optical sensors with microfluidics for bioanalysis. Her seven-year interdisciplinary experience allows her to independently formulate and execute creative solutions in the science and engineering research domains. She is capable of initiating collaboration and maintaining a long-lasting partnership with her enthusiasm for research as well as her trustworthy and ebullient personality, successfully establishing broad and steady collaborations with Benzhong Tang’s and Xiaodong Cui’s groups. She aims at being a principal investigator in medical diagnostics that bridges chemistry and bioengineering, and providing guidance for upcoming researchers especially female researchers to dive into STEM research.
A Microfluidic Chip for Rapid Analysis of DNA Melting Curves for BRCA2 Mutation Screening
A microfluidic chip integrated with a microheater and a luminescent temperature sensor for rapid, spatial melting curve analysis was developed and applied for the screening of a breast cancer gene fragment. The method could detect genetic differences in around 3 minutes total for the whole procedure which is much faster than established procedures. A microfabrication technique was developed to allow for bonding of a temperature sensing thin film and a Pt microheater with PDMS and the chips could be employed to generate and measure thermal gradients and the fluorescence intensity of stained DNA through multispectral optical imaging. The sensing layer consisting of poly(styrene-co-acrylonitrile) a and tris(1,10phenanthroline)ruthenium(II) temperature probe was generated by blade coating on a glass substrate with an attached Pt micro-heater. Calibration of the temperature between 20 and 90 °C yielded an overall resolution of around 0.13 K. The chip was employed for screening of the BRCA 2 breat cancer gene; BRCA2 exon 5 was differentiated by its mutant rs80359463 by a 1.1 K difference in melting temperature and two fragments of BRCA2 exon 11 were differentiated by their mutants rs276174826 and rs876660311 by 0.7 K and 2.0 K, respectively. The standard deviations were between 0.2 and 0.4 K. Capable of detecting the fluorescence in the DNA and the temperature simultaneously and being imaged in a customized assembly, this microchip can be used to screen for mutations in a variety of DNA samples in disease diagnosis and prognosis.
