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Serum markers are very useful, but many cellular processes occur within the cells and have no available serum marker. What if we could make one? Come see Sangsin Lee poster American Chemical Society #ACSFall2023 about updates on our synthetic serum marker tech.

Focused ultrasound can effectively deliver AAVs throughout the brain. We opened 105 sites at once without apparent trouble with even expression throughout. Surprisingly, we found that targeting more sites increases transduction efficiency... in each site. nature.com/articles/s4143…

News story about the paper led by Shirin Nouraein in our lab. Ultrasound can enhance delivery of AAV to throughout the brain, without neuronal or weight loss. Widespread delivery improved both the spatial distribution and efficiency. nature.com/articles/s4143… bioengineering.rice.edu/news/rice-doct…

I am very grateful to the NIH Common Fund for the support. With the NIH DP2 award we will measure gene expression in the brain with a simple blood test. If all goes well, we will do it with single-cell sensitivity and look at multiple genes at once. Lots of work until then.

Two of our lab members are giving presentations at the Biomedical Engineering Society annual meeting, with a focus on ultrasound. Their work was supported by the The Welch Foundation and The John S. Dunn Foundation.

Many brain therapies are permanent. One can't undo surgical resection for epilepsy, or remove gene therapy from the brain. What if we could do a test drive? RAID is a new concept for non-genetic, temporary, localized pharmacological control of the brain. biorxiv.org/content/10.110…

Serum markers are very useful, but they can't track many processes in the body. What if we could make synthetic serum markers to track any process? What if we could measure gene delivery or neuronal activity with a blood test? see our paper Nature Biotechnology nature.com/articles/s4158…

Eid-eh Shoma Mobarak — happy Nowruz and happy New Year to all those celebrating. In these challenging times, Nowruz's promise of renewal offers us hope as we stand together and pray for prosperity, health, and peace around the world.

Congrats to a star student in our lab, R Wang, who received both @nsf GRFP, and NDSEG fellowships. He is already a Barry Goldwater scholar as well and received a Sigma Xi grant. He is now deciding on where to do his Ph.D. with several great places in play.

Congrats to a lab alum, Joycelyn Yiu, now at UCSD BioE, for receiving an honorable mention from NSF GRFP. Funding this year was tough, but I am glad reviewers recognized her as a promising scientist that she is.

Congrats to our postdoc Sho Watanabe Sho Watanabe for getting a JSPS fellowship. These are tough to get and I would bet it is the first of many awards yet to come. engineering.rice.edu/news/sho-watan…

Can AAVs be evolved for better brain delivery after targeted ultrasound insonation? We report new AAVs optimized for focused ultrasound BBB opening. Congratulations to all involved! Richard Hongyi Li Manwal Harb John Heath @JakeSTrippett Mikhail Shapiro (same on bsky) 🇺🇦 nature.com/articles/s4146…

Congrats to our first Ph.D. graduate Dr. Sin Lee Sangsin Lee on a very successful defense.

I am so excited that Dr. Zhimin Huang is starting his own lab at Pitt Neurosurgery . As my mentor, he demonstrated a deep care for his trainees. Besides being an exceptional mentor and scientist he is also a passionate and fun individual. wish him the best of luck.

How could we check if a gene therapy reached the desired brain region? Here, we noninvasively measure gene delivery and endogenous gene expression in specific brain sites with ultrasound-released synthetic serum markers. science.org/doi/10.1126/sc…

qPCR can measure expression of virtually any gene... in homogenized tissues. Here, we show an "in-vivo qPCR" equivalent, where we measure a sequence-specific transcript with synthetic serum markers and enzyme-based signal amplification. biorxiv.org/content/10.110…

I am looking forward to working with Lignani Lab and others on this ARIA neurotechnologies grant. A ~$2.5m contribution to our lab's work that will help us make next generation noninvasive brain therapies for specific brain circuits. news.rice.edu/news/2025/rice…

We have two open postdoc positions, focused on molecular engineering, viral vector development, and a large animal focused ultrasound. It's a 4-year long, UK gov funded study. We will be looking at the candidates in mid-late February. please RT. emdz.fa.us2.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candidat…

Glad to be part of this exciting project that is led by Manwal Harb

Excited to share my recent work on erasable synthetic serum markers-engineered RMAs with a controllable half-life to reduce background noise and enable sensitive, high-temporal-resolution monitoring of brain gene expression, all with a simple blood test!🧠🩸