Chung-Yan Koh

Senior Member of the Techical Staff

Portrait of Chung-Yan Koh

Koh is a Senior Member of the Technical Staff at Sandia National Laboratories. He is a principal investigator of an interdisciplinary group of engineers and scientists developing technologies incorporating nanotechnology and microfluidics for detection/diagnostics of biological and chemical species of interest. His technical skills are in the areas of analytical chemistry, biochemistry/molecular biology, microscopy, spectroscopy, and synthetic chemistry.

Education

Bachelor’s Degrees:

  • Piano Performance, Cleveland Institute of Music
  • Biomedical Engineering, Case Western Reserve University

Master’s Degree: Macromolecular Science & Engineering, Case Western Reserve University

Doctoral Degree: Chemistry, Northwestern University; Thesis: Interactions of Supramolecular Nanostructures with Biological Systems for Advanced Medical Therapies

Postdoctoral Fellowship: Sandia National Laboratories (2010-2012)

Project Management Certification: Project Management Institute, Newtown Square, PA

Research Interests

  • Microfluidics and Molecular Diagnostics Koh heads technology development and maturation of centrifugal microfluidic platforms for immunoassays for detection of high priority agent proteins from clinical, animal, and environmental sample matrices. He also leads the maturation of platform/assay technologies from breadboard prototypes to deployable devices. Koh developed a laser-induced fluorescence microfluidic flow cytometry platform for protein detection and a microfluidic platform for multiplexed detection of proteins, nucleic acids, and cells. For work in this area, he was nominated for the Employee Recognition Award-Individual Technical Excellence in 2015, 2016, and 2017 and received the Federal Laboratory Consortium award for Notable Technology Development in 2013. He has also filed 10+ invention disclosures and was granted two patents for microfluidic device technologies.
  • Materials Chemistry and Assay Technology Development Koh co-invented novel isothermal nucleic amplification technologies for deployable molecular diagnostics. He developed assays for detection of CRISPR/Cas9 protein and activity from clinical samples. He designed new toxin activity/enzymatic assays to determine active fraction of toxin present in clinical and environmental sample matrices and demonstrated the first SEB activity assay. He created novel thermoresponsive, nanostructured polymer as a sieving matrix for microfluidic electrophoretic separation for protein detection. Furthermore, Koh developed assay technologies for small molecules amenable to field deployment on microfluidic devices. In this area, Koh has filed 25+ invention disclosures and was granted six patents for assay technologies.
  • Technology Transfer and Management Koh managed a clinical diagnostic laboratory in Freetown, Sierra Leone for the Defense Threat Reduction Agency’s response to the Ebola virus outbreak in West Africa. Koh has transferred technology to small businesses via licenses and federal agencies via government use notices and oversaw pilot-scale manufacturing contractors to produce thousands of plastic microfluidic devices. For his work in this area, he received the ERA award-Team Technical Excellence in 2016 and the DOE Secretary’s Appreciation Award in 2017. He was also the recipient of the Federal Laboratory Consortium Tech Transfer award for Outstanding Commercialization Success in 2017.
  • Honors and Memberships Lab on a Chip Poster Award, Point of Care Diagnostics World Congress, San Diego, USA (2018) Secretary of Energy Appreciation Award Winner, Department of Energy Award from Ernest Moniz for outstanding technical achievement in the Ebola response (2017) Individual Technical Excellence, Employee Recognition Award (ERA) Nominee, Sandia National Labs (2017) Federal Laboratory Consortium Award, Outstanding Commercialization Success (2017) Team Technical Excellence, ERA Winner, Sandia National Labs (2016) Individual Technical Excellence, ERA Nominee, Sandia National Labs (2016) Individual Technical Excellence, ERA Nominee, Sandia National Labs (2015) Federal Laboratory Consortium Award, Notable Technology Development (2013) Graduate Presidential Fellowship, Northwestern University (2008) Allen S. Hussey Award for Excellence in Teaching, Northwestern University (2005)
  • Selected Publications Phaneuf, C.R.; Mangadu, B.; Tran, H.M.; Light, Y.K.; Sinha, A.; Charbonier, F.W.; Eckles, T.P.; Singh, A.K.; Koh, C.-Y., Integrated LAMP and immunoassay platform for diarrheal disease detection. Biosensors and Bioelectronics. 2018, 120, 93-101. Highlighted by press release in GenomeWeb. Litvinov, J.; Moen, S.T.; Berry, G.J.; Loeffelholz, M.; Singh, A.K.; Koh, C.-Y., Centrifugal Microfluidic Platform for Rapid, Multiplexed Detection of TB and HIV Biomarkers in Whole Blood Samples. Bioengineering and Biomedical Science. 2017, 7:2. doi: 10.4172/2155-9538.1000230. Highlighted by press release by Sandia National Labs. Phaneuf, C.R.; Mangadu, B.; Piccini, M.E.; Singh, A.K.; Koh, C.-Y., Rapid, Portable, Multiplexed Detection of Bacterial Pathogens Directly from Clinical Sample Matrices. Biosensors 2016, 6(4), 49; doi:10.3390/bios6040049. Highlighted by press release in GenomeWeb. Litvinov, J.; Moen, S.T.; Singh, A.K.; Koh, C.-Y., Centrifugal sedimentation immunoassays for multiplexed detection of enteric bacteria in ground water. Biomicrofluidics. 2016 Jan 12;10(1):014103. doi: 10.1063/1.4939099. Abhyankar, V.V.; Koh, C.-Y.; Hatch, A.V., A Reversibly Sealed, Easy Access, Modular (SEAM) Microfluidic Architecture to Establish In Vitro Tissue Interfaces. PLoS ONE. 2016, 11(5): e0156341. Ball, C.S.; Light, Y.K.; Koh, C.-Y.; Wheeler, S.S.; Coffey, L.L.; Meagher, R.J., Quenching of Unincorporated Amplification Signal Reporters in Reverse-Transcription Loop-Mediated Isothermal Amplification Enabling Bright, Single-Step, Closed-Tube, and Multiplexed Detection of RNA Viruses. Anal. Chem., 2016, 88 (7), pp 3562-3568. Koh, C.-Y.; Schaff, U.Y.; Stanker, L.H.; Cheng, L.W.; Ravichandran, E.; Singh, B.-R.; Singh, A.K.; Sommer, G.J., A Rapid Sample-to-Answer Platform to Replace the Mouse Bioassay for Detection of Botulinum Neurotoxin. Anal. Chem., 2015, 87 (2), pp 922–928 Wu, M.; Koh, C.-Y.; Singh, A.K., Single Cell MicroRNA Analysis Using Microfluidic Flow Cytometry. PLoS ONE. 2013, 8(1): e55044. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0055044 Chandrasekaran, A.; Koh, C.-Y.; Takasuka, T.; Bergemann, L.F.; Fox, B.G.; Adams, P.D.; Singh, A.K., A universal flow cytometry assay for screening carbohydrate-active enzymes using glycan microspheres. Chem. Commun., 2013,49, 5441-5443  Koh, C.-Y.; Muraoka, T.M.; Cui, H.G.; Stupp, S.I., Light-Triggered Bioactivity in Three Dimensions. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2009, 48, (32), 5946-5949 Sargeant, T.D.; Rao, M.S.; Koh, C.-Y.; Stupp, S.I., Covalent functionalization of NiTi surfaces with bioactive peptide amphiphile nanofibers.  Biomaterials 2008, 29, (8) 1085-1098 Huang, Z.; Sargeant, T.D.; Hulvat, J.F.; Mata, A.; Bringas, P.; Koh, C.-Y.; Stupp, S.I.; Snead, M.I., Bioactive nanofibers instruct cells to proliferate and differentiate during enamel regeneration. J. Bone Miner. Res. 2008, 23, (12) 1995-2006
  • Granted Patents Quantitative detection of pathogens in centrifugal microfluidic disks (9,903,001) Method and apparatus for purifying nucleic acids and performing polymerase chain reaction assays (9,803,238) Devices, systems, and methods for detecting nucleic acids using sedimentation (9,795,961) System and method for detecting components of a mixture including a valving scheme (9,766,230) System and method for detecting components of a mixture including a valving scheme (9,702,871) Devices, systems, and methods for conducting assays with improved sensitivity using sedimentation (9,304,129) Toxin activity assays, devices, methods and systems therefor (9,304,128) Devices, systems, and methods for conducting assays with improved sensitivity using sedimentation (8,962,346) Self-Assembling peptide systems and methods (8,652,009) Seven non-provisional patent applications pending, more than 20 invention disclosures filed.
  • Invited and Selected Presentations Phaneuf, C.R., Seamon, K.J., Eckles, T.P., Sinha, A., Schoeniger, J.S., Harmon, B.N., Meagher, R.J., Abhyankar, V.V., Koh, C.-Y., (2018) Multi-Species detection of Cas9 presence and activity on a portable centrifugal microfluidic platform. Poster presentation delivered at SELECTBIO Point-of-Care Diagnostics and Global Health 2018, San Diego, CA, October 2018. Lab on a Chip poster award. Koh, C.-Y., Mangadu, B., Singh, A.K. (2017) Development of a multiplexed microfluidic detector for biological agents. Invited oral presentation delivered at DTRA CBDST, Long Beach, CA, November 2017. Phaneuf, C.R., VanderNoot, V.A., Koh, C.-Y., Portable centrifugal microfluidic system for diagnostics in resource-limited settings. Poster presentation delivered at Healthcare Innovation Point-of-Care Technologies Conference (HI-POCT), November 2016. Peer reviewed abstract published in IEEE proceedings. doi:10.1109/HIC.2016.7797704 Phaneuf, C.R., Light, Y.K., Tran H.M., Singh, A.K., Koh, C.-Y., (2016) Portable centrifugal microfluidic platform for nucleic acid detection. Poster presentation delivered at MicroTAS, Dublin, Ireland, October 2016. Phaneuf, C.R., Light, Y.K., Tran, H.M., Singh, A.K., Koh, C-.Y. Non-contact heating system for a centrifugal microfluidic system. Poster presentation delivered at SELECTBIO Lab on a chip, Microfluidics & Microarrays World Congress. October 2015. Koh, C.-Y., Langevin, S.A., Piccini, M.E., Singh, A.K. (2013) SpinDx: A Rapid, Sensitive, and Deployable Platform for Diagnostics of Radiological and Biological Threats. Invited oral presentation delivered at SPIE: Defense, Security, and Sensing, Baltimore, MD, May 2013. Koh, C.-Y., Langevin, S.A., Schaff, U.Y., Singh, A.K., Sommer, G.J. (2012). SpinDx: A Rapid, Sensitive, and Deployable Platform for Detection of Nucleic Acids, Proteins, and Protein Activity From Pathogens. Oral presentation at the ACS national meeting, Philadelphia, PA, August, 2012. Koh, C.-Y., Langevin, S.A., Schaff, U.Y., Singh, A.K., Sommer, G.J. (2012). SpinDx: A Rapid, Sensitive, and Deployable Platform for Broad-Spectrum Pathogen Diagnostics. Oral presentation at Biodetection Technologies, Washington, D.C., June, 2012. Koh, C.-Y., Schaff, U.Y., Singh, A.K., Sommer, G.J. (2011). Rapid, sensitive detection and quantification of toxins from complex biological matrices. Poster presentation delivered at microTAS, Seattle, WA, November, 2011. Koh, C.-Y., Sommer, G.J., Singh, A.K., Hatch, A.V. (2010). Rapid detection and quantitation of toxin presence and enzymatic activity using a portable diagnostic platform. Oral presentation delivered at ITP, Baltimore, MD, August, 2010. Koh, C.-Y., Sommer, G.J., Singh, A.K., Hatch, A.V. (2010). Rapid detection and quantitation of Botulinum Neurotoxin/A presence and enzymatic activity using a portable diagnostic platform. Oral presentation delivered at the ACS national meeting, Boston, MA, August, 2010.