Assistant Staff Scientist

Overview

Center Overview:
The Cancer Early Detection Advanced Research (CEDAR) center is a collaborative institution within the OHSU Knight Cancer Institute. The Knight Cancer Institute is a leader in research and cancer treatment. The CEDAR mission is to detect and stop lethal cancers at the earliest stage to save lives. We are comprised of biologists, chemists, biomedical engineers, computationalists, and clinicians conducting translational cancer research to help people maintain a high quality of life and reduce cancer mortality.

Our Commitment to Diversity: CEDAR is committed to increasing the diversity of the campus community and promoting inclusion and multiculturalism by bringing together outstanding researchers of diverse backgrounds on multiple projects. Our research is milestone-driven to ensure each project fulfills its stated goals. Knight Cancer employees embody our guiding principles:

• We act BOLDLY — Breakthroughs require pushing the boundaries of science and thinking differently
• We SUPPORT each other — Respect leads to trust, which leads to excellence
• We work as a CONNECTED team — We must leverage our collective brain power to conquer cancer

This NIH grant funded position with Dr. Stuart Ibsen involves developing a new type of cancer diagnostic test that combines microfluidic and microarray technology to pull cancer-derived nanoparticles from plasma. Our long-term goal is to bring nanoparticle-based diagnostics to the clinic for the first time. We are hiring 1–2 researchers with expertise in Engineering or Biology to work in the following areas:

• Development of biological particle separation techniques using dielectrophoresis — using microelectrode array chips to recover cancer-derived nanoparticles from circulation. This includes increasing particle collection efficiency, understanding particle types, developing an internal standard, and particle characterization. This work uses the dielectrophoresis equipment at OHSU and includes quantitative fluorescent microscopy imaging, TEM imaging, immunostaining, and particle characterization.
• System automation — development and finalization of an automated system for the dielectrophoresis workflow to increase throughput, involving basic robotics and automation programming in Lab View.
• Cancer biomarker panel development — evaluate nanoparticle-associated biomarkers for their ability to detect pancreatic cancer from plasma samples using the developed dielectrophoresis techniques.

• Luna, Ramona;
  Heineck, Daniel;
  Hinestrosa, Juan Pablo;
  Dobrovolskaia, Irina;
  Hamilton, Sean;
  Malakian, Anna;
  Gustafson, Kyle T.;
  Huynh, Katherine T.;
  Kim, Sejung;
  Ware, Jason;
  Stimson, Ella;
  Ross, Christian;
  Schutt, Carolyn
  
  E.;
  Ibsen, Stuart
  . “Enhancement of Dielectrophoresis-Based Particle Collection from High Conducting Fluids Due to Partial Electrode Insulation.” Electrophoresis, In Press (2023)
• Hamilton, Sean;
  Shea, Delaney;
  Ibsen, Stuart
  , Brasino, Michael. "On‑chip dielectrophoretic recovery and detection of a lactate sensing probiotic from model human saliva." Electrophoresis, 44(3-4): 442-449 (2023)
• Luna, Ramona;
  Heineck, Daniel P.;
  Bucher, Elmar;
  Heiser, Laura;
  Ibsen, Stuart. "Theoretical and Experimental Analysis of Negative Dielectrophoresis Induced Particle Trajectories." Electrophoresis 43(12):  (2022)
• Gustafson, Kyle;
  Huynh, Katherine;
  Heineck, Daniel;
  Bueno, Jesus;
  Modestino, Augusta;
  Kim, Sejung;
  Gower, Austin;
  Armstrong, Randall;
  Schutt, Carolyn;
  Ibsen, Stuart
  . "Automated Fluorescence Quantification of Extracellular Vesicles Collected from Blood Plasma using Dielectrophoresis." Lab on a Chip 21(7):  (2021)
• Sarno, Benjamin;
  Heineck, Daniel;
  Heller Michael J.;
  Ibsen, Stuart
  . "Dielectrophoresis:
  Developments and Applications from 2010 to 2020." Electrophoresis 42(5): 539-564 (2021)
• Ibsen, Stuart
  ;
  Wright, Jennifer;
  Lewis, Jean;
  Kim, Sejung;
  Ko, Seo-Yeon;
  Ong, Jiye;
  Manouchehri, Sareh;
  Vyas, Ankit;
  Akers, Johnny;
  Chen, Clark;
  Carter, Bob;
  Esener, Sadik;
  Heller, Michael. "Rapid isolation and detection of exosomes and associated biomarkers from plasma." ACS Nano 11(7):  (2017)

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