Dr. Hui chen

Principal Research Interests

• Point of Care Testing
• Smart Molecular Switch
• Microfluidics
• Biomimicking Sensors
• Molecular Imaging
• Chemical Education

Diagnosis is a crucial initial step in healthcare, essential for linking patients to appropriate therapies and potential cures. Accurate and early diagnosis is particularly critical for addressing life-threatening diseases such as cancers, infectious diseases, neurological disorders, and cardiovascular diseases. Unfortunately, most existing diagnostic tools are primarily designed for well-resourced urban centers with centralized diagnostic laboratories. These facilities often require specialized, expensive equipment and highly trained personnel, which can be inaccessible to underserved populations, including those in rural areas or individuals facing economic or physical challenges.

The Accessible Diagnostic Research Lab is committed to addressing these healthcare disparities. Our long-term goal is to develop accessible, user-friendly, fast, and cost-effective diagnostic tools. These innovations will focus on diseases prevalent among marginalized populations, including cancers, cardiovascular diseases, infectious diseases, and neurological disorders, utilizing the latest advances in micro/nanotechnologies, machine learning, synthetic biology, microfluidics, and biomimetics. This approach aims to broaden the availability of crucial diagnostic services, ensuring that vulnerable groups have better access to the healthcare they need.

In order to make diagnostic tools accessible, certain characteristics need to be considered, including reliability, simplicity, usability, cost effectiveness, and portability. Addressing these criteria is essential to meet the diverse needs of global populations, particularly in under-resourced areas. Currently, we are advancing our objectives through three primary technical approaches: 1) Digital immuno-sensing; 2) Microfluidic based assay automation; 3) CRISPR molecular switch. These innovative approaches are geared towards transforming the accessibility of diagnostic solutions, making them more adaptable to various settings without compromising on performance.

Representative Publications

• Chenxi Wang, Xinyu Feng, Jun Feng, Hui Chen, Tianmu Chen, Kun Yin; Advances in the diagnosis and genomic research of surveillance-response activities in emerging, re-emerging, and unidentified infectious diseases; Frontiers in Public Health; 2023. 11, 1182918
• Hui Chen, Sungwan Kim, Joseph Michael Hardie, Manoj Kumar Kanakasabapathy, Supriya Gharpure, Prudhvi Thirumalaraju, Sahar Rostamian, Qingsong Lei, Srisruthi Udayakumar, Gi Won Cho, and Hadi Shafiee; Deep learning-assisted sensitive detection of fentanyl using a bubbling-microchip; Lab on a Chip, 2022,22, 4531-4540.
• Yi Xie, Huimin Li, Fumin Chen, Srisruthi Udayakumar, Khyati Arora, Hui Chen, Yang Lan, Qinqin Hu, Xiaonong Zhou, Xiaokui Guo, Leshan Xiu, Kun Yin;Clustered Regularly Interspaced short palindromic repeats-Based Microfluidic System in Infectious Diseases Diagnosis: Current Status, Challenges, and Perspectives. Advanced Science, 2022, 2204172.
• Hui Chen, Sheng Feng, Wan Zhou, Zhao Li, Melissa Richard-Greenblatt and Ping Wang; Pretreatment Methods for Human Nasopharyngeal Swabs to Increase Signal to Noise Ratio of High Sensitivity Immunoassays; ACS Measurement Science Au; 2022, 2, 5, 414–421.
• Hui Chen, Zhao Li (co-first author), Sheng Feng, Anni Wang, Melissa Richard-Greenblatt, Emily Hutson, Stefen Andrianus, Laurel J. Glaser, Kyle G. Rodino, Jianing Qian, Dinesh Jayaraman, Ronald G. Collman, Jae Seung Lee, Sara Cherry, Alejandra Fausto, Susan R. Weiss, Hyun Koo, Patricia M. Corby, Ping Wang; Femtomolar SARS-CoV-2 Antigen Detection Using the Microbubbling Digital Assay with Smartphone Readout Enables Antigen Burden Quantitation and Tracking; Clinical Chemistry, Volume 68, Issue 1, 2022, Pages 230–239,.
• Hui Chen, Zhao Li (co-first author), Sheng Feng, Keng-Ku Liu, Ping Wang; Development and Clinical Validation of a Sensitive Lateral Flow Assay for Rapid Urine Fentanyl Screening in the Emergency Department. Clinical Chemistry 2020, 66 (2), 324-332
• Hui Chen, Dimple Chavan (co-first author), Mary Crum, Binh Vu, Mohammad Safari, Maxwell Smith, Peter Vekilov, Jacinta C. Conrad, Katerina Kourentzi, Richard C. Willson; Neutral DNA–avidin nanoparticles as ultrasensitive reporters in immuno-PCR; Analyst; 2020, 145, 4942.
• Hui Chen, Zhao Li, Lingzhi Zhang, Philippe Sawaya, Jianbo Shi, Ping Wang; Quantitation of Femtomolar-Level Protein Biomarkers Using a Simple Microbubbling Digital Assay and Bright-Field Smartphone; Angewandte Chemie International Edition; 2019, 131(39), 14060-14066.
• Hui Chen, Keng-Ku Liu, Zhao Li, Ping Wang; Point of care testing for infectious diseases. Clinica Chimica Acta; 2019, 493, 138-147
• Hui Chen, Zhao Li (co-first author), Ping Wang; Lateral Flow Assay Ruler for Instrument-free Quantitative and Rapid Point-of-care Testing; Analyst; 2019, 144 (10), 3314-3322.
• Hui Chen, Mary Crum, Dimple Chavan, Binh Vu, Katerina Kourentzi, Richard C. Willson; Nanoparticle based Proximity Ligation Assay for Ultrasensitive, Quantitative Detection of Protein Biomarkers；ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces; 2018 10(38): 31845-31849.
• Hui Chen, Hagström A. E. V., Kim, J., Garvey, G., Paterson, A., Ruiz-Ruiz, F., Raja, B., Strych, U., Rito-Palomares, M.; Kourentzi, K., Conrad, J. C.; Atmar, R. L., Willson, R. C.; Flotation Immunoassay: Masking the Signal from Free Reporters in Sandwich Immunoassays. Scientific Reports; 2016, 6, 24297
• Hui Chen, Yang Zeng, Wei Liu, Shan Zhao, Jinhui Wu, Yanan Du, Multifaceted applications of nanomaterials in cell engineering and therapy, Biotechnology Advances; Volume 31, Issue 5, 2013.
• Hui Chen, Yulan Wang, Shiping Xu, Jianchen Wang; Influence of High Frequency Ex-electric Field on Etching Process and Shape of Pores for Nuclear Track Film. Atomic Energy Science and Technology, vol.45, No. 7, p853, 2011.

Patents

• Hui Chen, Ping Wang; Rapid and Ultrasensitive SARS-CoV-2 Antigen Detection for Acute Infection Screening in Community Settings; U.S. Provisional Application No.: 63/035,129 filed on June 05, 2020.
• Hui Chen, Zhao Li, Keng-Ku Liu, Ping Wang; Devices and Methods for Rapid Screening of Drugs of Abuse and Other Analytes; U.S. Provisional Application No.: 62/874,643 filed on July 16, 2019.
• Hui Chen, Zhao Li, Ping Wang; Point-Of-Care Diagnosis System and Methods; U.S. Provisional Application No.: 62/730,719; 2018.
• Hui Chen, Mary Crum, Dimple Chavan, Ekaterini Kourentzi, Binh Vu, Richard Willson; Highly-Specific Assays, UHID 2016-051; 2016