Current projects
Novel optical probe for continuous real-time in vivo study of brain alcohol
Collaborator: Prof Gonzales from the College of Pharmacy, UT Austin.
Development of new therapeutics for alcohol use disorder requires continued progress in the elucidation of the neuropharmacological mechanisms that underlie the changes in the brain that repeated ethanol consumption produce. To this end, animal models, including rodents, have been essential in furthering our understanding of how ethanol exposure alters the motivation to consume ethanol. A key limitation in the field is the ability to monitor ethanol in tissues (including brain) in real-time so that the experimenter can interpret any findings of neurophysiological or neurochemical changes produced by ethanol. In other words, particularly with models of self- administration of ethanol, it is extremely important to have a read out of the ethanol concentrations that are achieved in brain tissue before, during, and after ethanol consumption (as well as other tissues). Presently available technology does not allow continuous, real-time determination of tissue ethanol concentrations. Our objective is to design, develop, and test an optical probe capable of selective detection of ethanol concentrations in vivo.
Funding acknowledgment: 
Measurement of protein oligomers
Collaborator: Prof Jim Ray, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Huston, TX.
Neurodegenerative diseases are caused by misfolded proteins forming soluble toxic oligomers in the brain. Current technologies accurately assess specific known oligomers such as amyloid and tau, but do not measure ones that have not yet been discovered. This project aims to develop an optical microfluidic device capable of detecting protein oligomers in a biological sample.
Funding acknowledgment: 
Photocatalytic degradation of toxic volatile organic compounds
Collaborators: Dr Willie Luk, Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies (CINT), NM.
Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) including hydrocarbons and their derivatives, are common pollutants in the indoor or outdoor air. Photodegradation offers a promising route for their removal from the environment. Our aim is to understand the effect of nanoconfinement on the photodegradation of toxic volatile organics inside the nanopores of TiO2 functionalized with plasmonic nanoparticles. This includes stud yof molecular adsorption/desorption, effect of nano-confinement on reaction energy barrier, mass transport and photodegradation reaction mechanisms. We aim to determine the effects of diffusion, adsorption, light intensity, wavelength, adsorption/desorption, selectivity, charge exclusion, and size exclusion. This will lead to new insights and understandings that can be directly applicable to many other chemical surface reactions involving nanoconfinement that are important for catalysis, gas preconcentration and separation, and water treatment.
Funding acknowledgment: 
Rapid bacteria detection for medical and food applications
Collaborators: Prof Partridge, Prof Davies from Molecular Biosciences
Organ-on-a-chip with integrated micro-sensors
Collaborators: Prof Bance, University of Cambridge
-Rapid screening for therapeutic compounds for hearing loss
-Electrochemical electrolyte sensors
Blood rheology
-Blood viscosity / clotting point-of-care devices
Gas and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) sensors
Collaborators: industry, INL Portugal
-Optical waveguides
-Gas preconcentrators
-MEMS sensors
Geochemsitry and gas adsorption in nanomaterials/rocks
Collaborators: Prof Prodanovic, Prof Heidari from Petroleum Engineering
-Fluid adsorption in nanomaterials, wetting
-Geochemistry
Sonoluminescence biosensor
Collaborators: Prof Wilson, Prof Hamilton from Mech. Eng.
Materials
Nanomaterials
Nanoporous materials
Plasmonics