Expert Profile: priyeah | Research Directory

Professional Summary

Our research is primarily curiosity driven, where we take an engineering and physics based approach to explore biophysical processes occurring at the micro-scale. We then harness these principles towards applications pertaining to global health, bioengineering, and educational outreach. An overview of projects are described below:

Physics of Micro-scale Flows
Fluid flow arising due to thermal gradients (thermal instability driven convective flows) is quite ubiquitous in nature (oceanic currents, cloud formation, etc.) but they can exhibit unique characteristics at the micro-scale, capable of greatly accelerating biomolecular transport and reactions. We use computational tools (Computational Fluid Dynamics) and novel experimental setups (automated microfluidic systems) to study these flow states and evaluate the conditions under which they can be harnessed to actuate biomolecular transport and assembly, accelerate DNA replication and separate cells (based on their shape and size).

Point-of-Care Detection for Global Health
The recent disease outbreaks have exposed some key limitations facing current infectious disease management strategies, particularly when applied in remote underdeveloped areas. Existing approaches are highly resource intensive, relying on dispatching specially trained personnel to isolated locations where biological samples are collected and returned to dedicated laboratories for analysis. A need therefore exists for inexpensive and robust tools that can be broadly deployed to accelerate diagnosis, enable pinpoint delivery of therapeutics, and provide real-time data to better inform decision making. We engineer simple and portable diagnostic tools (such as smartphone based DNA analyzer and lab on a drone) that can be deployed and operated outside the laboratory to address global challenges of healthcare, environmental sampling, agriculture and science outreach. Projects under this area are quite multidisciplinary and collaborative in nature.

Functional Microfluidics
Microfluidics enables large-scale automation in chemical and biological sciences, suggesting the possibility of numerous experiments performed rapidly and in parallel while consuming little reagents. This has led to the emergence of the so-called lab on chip systems, making significant strides in diverse areas ranging from grand challenges such as water purification to fundamental research such as genetic analysis. Despite significant advances, few roadblocks has hindered microfluidic systems from replacing convectional bench-top analytical tools and widely penetrate the point of care in low resource settings where they are needed most. We aim to create the next generation of microfluidic devices using rapid fabrication techniques (3D printing, micro-milling and laser cutting) that would drastically simplify the prototyping and assembly processes of microfluidics systems.

We have a few positions open for passionate postdoctoral, graduate (prospective PhD/Master’s applicants) and undergraduate students. Our research is quite multidisciplinary, involving researchers from a wide range of background including engineering (chemical, mechanical, biomedical, electrical and bioengineering), applied physics, biophysics, material science and applied mathematics. Along with frequently publishing our research, we actively explore platforms to commercialize the technologies that are developed in our lab.

If you are interested in joining our lab, please send a copy of recent CV, a brief summary of your projects and a short statement of your research interests to priyeah@uc.edu.

Education

PhD: Texas A&M University, Texas, USA, 2015 (Chemical Engineering)

BE: Vellore Institute of Technology, India, 2009 (Chemical Engineering)

Positions and Work Experience

2008 -2009 Research Scientist, Bhabha Atomic Research Center, Mumbai, India

2015 -2018 Postdoctoral Fellow, Sandia National Laboratories, Livermore, CA, USA

2018 -2024 Assistant Professor, Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, University of Cincinnati

2024 -To Present Associate Professor, Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, University of Cincinnati

Research Support

Grant: #R40526 Investigators:Chae, Soryong; Prasath, Surya; Priye, Aashish 10-01-2019 -03-31-2020 UC's Urban Futures Digital Futures Anchor Development Program Drone-based DNA Analysis Role:PI $10,000.00 Active Level:Internal UC

Grant: #DE-FE0032128 Investigators:Lee, Joo-Youp; Priye, Aashish 10-01-2021 -07-31-2024 Department of Energy Energy-Efficient Direct Air Capture System for High Purity CO2 Separation Role:Co-PI $1,499,998.00 Active Type:Grant

Grant: #W81XWH-22-1-0071 Investigators:Priye, Aashish 03-01-2022 -02-29-2024 DoD - Department of the Army Medical Research Acquisition Activity Disposable porous membranes to enable rapid and inexpensive nucleic acid amplification based viral diagnostic toolkit at the point of need Role:PI $320,621.00 Active Type:Grant

Grant: #CBET-2239135 Investigators:Priye, Aashish 01-15-2023 -12-31-2027 National Science Foundation CAREER: Simultaneous sample preparation and thermal cycling for rapid and inexpensive molecular diagnostics at the point-of-care Role:PI $501,124.00 Active Type:Grant

Grant: #TI-2422468 Investigators:Priye, Aashish 05-15-2024 -04-30-2025 National Science Foundation Compact and Low-Energy Molecular Diagnostic Devices for Testing of Infectious Diseases Role:PI 50000.00 Active Level:Federal

Grant: #1018180 Investigators:Aashish Priye 04-2022 -03-2023 Center of clinical & translational science and training Instrument-free LAMP diagnostics platform for rapid testing Role:PI $74,624 Type:Grant

Grant: #1018268 Investigators:Aashish Priye 04-2022 -03-2024 Office of Research Collaborative University Research Council Developing a portable and inexpensive molecular diagnostic kit for rapid testing Role:PI $24,978 Type:Grant

Publications

Peer Reviewed Publications

Priye, Aashish; Hassan, Yassin A.; Ugaz, Victor M. (2012. ) Education: DNA replication using microscale natural convection .Lab on a chip, ,

Priye, Aashish; Ugaz, Victor M (2016. ) Convective PCR Thermocycling with Smartphone-Based Detection: A Versatile Platform for Rapid, Inexpensive, and Robust Mobile Diagnostics .Microfluidic Methods for Molecular Biology, , 55-69

Priye, Aashish; Ball, Cameron S; Meagher, Robert J (2018. ) Colorimetric-Luminance Readout for Quantitative Analysis of Fluorescence Signals with a Smartphone CMOS Sensor .Analytical chemistry, ,

Priye, Aashish; Marlow, William H (2013. ) Computations of Lifshitzâ??van der Waals interaction energies between irregular particles and surfaces at all separations for resuspension modelling .Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics, , 46 (42 ) ,425306

Priye, Aashish; Ugaz, Victor M (2017. ) Smartphone-Enabled Detection Strategies for Portable PCR Based Diagnostics .Biosensors and Biodetection: Methods and Protocols Volume 1: Optical-Based Detectors, , 251-266

Priye, Aashish; Hassan, Yassin A; Ugaz, Victor M (2013. ) Microscale chaotic advection enables robust convective DNA replication .Analytical chemistry, , 85 (21 ) ,10536-10541

Priye, Aashish; Wong, Season; Bi, Yuanpeng; Carpio, Miguel; Chang, Jamison; Coen, Mauricio; Cope, Danielle; Harris, Jacob; Johnson, James; Keller, Alexandra (2016. ) Lab-on-a-drone: toward pinpoint deployment of smartphone-enabled nucleic acid-based diagnostics for mobile health care .Analytical chemistry, , 88 (9 ) ,4651-4660

Lab-on-a-drone could improve management of disease outbreaks

Priye, Aashish; Bird, Sara W; Light, Yooli K; Ball, Cameron S; Negrete, Oscar A; Meagher, Robert J (2017. ) A smartphone-based diagnostic platform for rapid detection of Zika, chikungunya, and dengue viruses .Scientific Reports (Nature Publishing Group), , 7 (9 ) ,4651-4660

Testing for Zika virus: There's an app for that

Priye, Aashish; Yu, Yuncheng; Hassan, Yassin A; Ugaz, Victor M (2017. ) Synchronized chaotic targeting and acceleration of surface chemistry in prebiotic hydrothermal microenvironments .Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, , 114 (6 ) ,1275-1280

UC explores origin of life at the bottom of the ocean

Balou, Salar; Shandilya, Pooja; Priye, Aashish (2022. ) Carbon dots for photothermal applications.Frontiers in chemistry, , 10 ,1023602 More Information

Ahmed, Isteaque; Sullivan, Katherine; Priye, Aashish (2022. ) Multi-Resin Masked Stereolithography (MSLA) 3D Printing for Rapid and Inexpensive Prototyping of Microfluidic Chips with Integrated Functional Components.Biosensors, , 12 (8 ) , More Information

Das, Debayan; Singh, Tarun; Ahmed, Isteaque; Masetty, Manaswini; Priye, Aashish (2022. ) Effects of Relative Humidity and Paper Geometry on the Imbibition Dynamics and Reactions in Lateral Flow Assays.Langmuir : the ACS journal of surfaces and colloids, , 38 (32 ) ,9863-9873 More Information

Balou, Salar; Babak, Seyedeh E; Priye, Aashish (2020. ) Synergistic Effect of Nitrogen Doping and Ultra-Microporosity on the Performance of Biomass and Microalgae-Derived Activated Carbons for CO2 Capture.ACS applied materials & interfaces, , 12 (38 ) ,42711-42722 More Information

Priye, Aashish; Ball, Cameron S; Meagher, Robert J (2018. ) Colorimetric-Luminance Readout for Quantitative Analysis of Fluorescence Signals with a Smartphone CMOS Sensor.Analytical chemistry, , 90 (21 ) ,12385-12389 More Information

Natarajan, Satheesh; Priye, Aashish (2023. ) Enhancing the Sensitivity of Lateral Flow Assay with Europium Nanoparticles for Accurate Human IgG Quantification.Micromachines, , 14 (11 ) , More Information

Ditchendorf, Elijah; Ahmed, Isteaque; Sepate, Joseph; Priye, Aashish (2023. ) A Smartphone-Enabled Continuous Flow Digital Droplet LAMP Platform for High Throughput and Inexpensive Quantitative Detection of Nucleic Acid Targets.Sensors (Basel, Switzerland), , 23 (19 ) , More Information

Laman, Alex; Das, Debayan; Priye, Aashish (2023. ) Miniaturized Non-Contact Heating and Transmitted Light Imaging Using an Inexpensive and Modular 3D-Printed Platform for Molecular Diagnostics.Sensors (Basel, Switzerland), , 23 (18 ) , More Information

Meagher, Robert J; Priye, Aashish; Light, Yooli K; Huang, Cheng; Wang, Eryu (2018. ) Impact of primer dimers and self-amplifying hairpins on reverse transcription loop-mediated isothermal amplification detection of viral RNA.The Analyst, , 143 (8 ) ,1924-1933 More Information

Priye, Aashish; Bird, Sara W; Light, Yooli K; Ball, Cameron S; Negrete, Oscar A; Meagher, Robert J (2017. ) A smartphone-based diagnostic platform for rapid detection of Zika, chikungunya, and dengue viruses.Scientific reports, , 7 ,44778 More Information

Priye, Aashish; Yu, Yuncheng; Hassan, Yassin A; Ugaz, Victor M (2017. ) Synchronized chaotic targeting and acceleration of surface chemistry in prebiotic hydrothermal microenvironments.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, , 114 (6 ) ,1275-1280 More Information

Priye, Aashish; Ugaz, Victor M (2017. ) Smartphone-Enabled Detection Strategies for Portable PCR-Based Diagnostics.Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.), , 1571 ,251-266 More Information

Ball, C S; Renzi, R F; Priye, A; Meagher, R J (2016. ) A simple check valve for microfluidic point of care diagnostics.Lab on a chip, , 16 (22 ) ,4436-4444 More Information

Priye, Aashish; Wong, Season; Bi, Yuanpeng; Carpio, Miguel; Chang, Jamison; Coen, Mauricio; Cope, Danielle; Harris, Jacob; Johnson, James; Keller, Alexandra; Lim, Richard; Lu, Stanley; Millard, Alex; Pangelinan, Adriano; Patel, Neal; Smith, Luke; Chan, Kamfai; Ugaz, Victor M (2016. ) Lab-on-a-Drone: Toward Pinpoint Deployment of Smartphone-Enabled Nucleic Acid-Based Diagnostics for Mobile Health Care.Analytical chemistry, , 88 (9 ) ,4651-60 More Information

Priye, Aashish; Hassan, Yassin A; Ugaz, Victor M (2013. ) Microscale chaotic advection enables robust convective DNA replication.Analytical chemistry, , 85 (21 ) ,10536-41 More Information

Priye, Aashish; Hassan, Yassin A; Ugaz, Victor M (2012. ) Education: DNA replication using microscale natural convection.Lab on a chip, , 12 (23 ) ,4946-54 More Information