Letizia will be joining the lab as a Ph.D. student. She will be working on stool biosensor technologies for applications in ecological protection.

Following up on our recent report of high-affinity DNA aptamers for SARS-CoV-2, we’ve been busy working with our collaborators in the Soleymani Lab and the Biointerfaces Institute to apply them on electrochemical sensors. Read our latest COVID19 paper at Pubmed to learn more about how we achieve high sensitivity detection of SARS-CoV-2 in unprocessed human saliva to pave the way for a rapid and sample diagnostic test.
Take a quick look at our recent publication in Frontiers in Chemistry. In this paper, a simple and surfactant-free approach is presented to synthesize Pd-Ir nanocubes with atomic Ir shell thickness in an aqueous solution at room temperature. Biomolecules such as antibodies and nucleic acids have free access to the surface of Pd-Ir nanocubes. Applications of Pd-Ir nanocubes in immunoassays and aptamer-based biosensors are realized, exploiting the excellent peroxidase activity and fluorescence quenching ability of Pd-Ir nanocubes. Read more about our work at Pubmed. – Jiuxing
Li J, Li Y. Facile Synthesis of Pd-Ir Nanocubes for Biosensing. Front Chem. 2021 Nov 24;9:775220. doi: 10.3389/fchem.2021.775220. PMID: 34900937; PMCID: PMC8651546.
The Li Lab and our collaborators from across the McMaster community have published our first report on our novel aptamers for COVID19! The lab has refocused our efforts over the past year to address pressing COVID19 problems and we’re excited to finally be sharing our work. Read more about our work at Pubmed.
In a collaboration with the Didar Lab and Toyota Tsusho Canada, the Li Lab will be working towards the development of food wrap technologies for the detection of pathogenic bacteria using DNA sensors. Read more about it McMaster Brighter World.
Li Lab postdoctoral fellow Erin McConnell has been awarded the NSERC & L’Oréal-UNESCO Women in Science Supplement. Congratulations to Erin for her fantastic work as a scientist and as a role model for young scientists around the world.
Explore the following links to learn more about Erin’s work and the work of the other great researchers recently recognized.
Canadian Awarding ceremony of the L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science fellowships
NSERC and L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Supplement
L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science 2018: Erin McConnell
IUPAC Young Chemist