Dr. Catherine Klapperich, Boston University, “From the Microscale to Scaling Up: Biomedical Diagnostics and Public Health”
Title: From the Microscale to Scaling Up: Biomedical Diagnostics and Public Health
Abstract and Bio:
Dr. Catherine Klapperich is Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Boston University. She holds appointments in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and in the Division of Materials Science and Engineering. She is the Scientific Director of the Design, Automation, Manufacturing, and Process Laboratory (DAMP Lab) in the BU Biological Design Center.
Dr. Klapperich joined BU as an Assistant Professor in 2003 and has built an internationally recognized research program in point of care diagnostics for infectious disease. She invents new technologies to expand the reach of molecular diagnostics into resource limited settings in the United States and around the World. She has made contributions that enable integrated sample preparation in microfluidic and paper fluidic devices. Her work includes screening for human papilloma virus (HPV), testing for chlamydia and gonorrhea, malaria, and HIV viral load monitoring.
Dr. Klapperich led the design and scale up of campus wide COVID-19 testing in a new facility on the BU Campus. Her leadership brought together expertise in assay development, liquid handling, software design and development, data analytics and security, regulatory issues, and clinical test provision. Between July 2020 and May 2022, the lab performed 2.5 million COVID-19 PCR tests.
In this talk, she will cover her work in point of care diagnostics, results from the BU Clinical Testing Laboratory, and small glimpse into her recent work using high throughput primary cell cultures and organoids to model various tissues of the female reproductive system.
Dr. Klapperich holds a BS in Materials Science and Engineering from Northwestern University, an SM in Engineering Sciences from Harvard, and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley. She has received funding from the NIH, NSF, DOD, The Wallace H. Coulter Foundation, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Grand Challenges Africa, and others. Dr. Klapperich is a fellow of the AAAS, AIMBE, BMES, and the International Academy of Medical and Biological Engineering (IAMBE).
