Submitted by:
Peter Grutter
General area of research:
Material Science, Biophysics
McGill courses:
see Dresselhaus answer
Why you chose to feature this researcher:
McKendry leads an interdisciplinary research team at the intersection of nanotechnology, telecommunications, big data, infectious diseases and public health. Developed and implemented smart phone-based, low cost, rapid-result infectious disease test kits based on nanomechanics and deployed them in developing nations.
More info:
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Highlighting research:
Describe in detail the research from this individual that you would like to highlight:
How does this research relate to a undergraduate curricular topic, and teachable concepts in physics?
What is the significance of this research? This can mean within the particular field, as well as broader societal relevance.
Huge health and quality of life impact in sub-saharan Africa.
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Additional information and links:
British chemist and digital public health engineer
Director of i-sense (interdisciplinary research collaboration developing early warning sensing systems for infectious diseases)
She showed how nanosensors could 'feel' mechanical stresses in the cell walls of bacteria when the antibiotic Vancomycin attaches to them, an antibiotic which battles against hospital superbugs.
Understanding the process by which Vancomycin attaches (or fails to attach) to bacterial walls and weakens or kills bacteria, led researchers in this study to suggest other, potentially more effective alternatives compounds worthy of investigation
In 2014, also in Nature Nanotechnology, McKendry, and her co-workers, Joseph Ndieyira et al, used nano-sensors to test a theoretical approach to personalised antibiotic treatment for individual patients of the future.[10] Their prototype nano-mechanical sensors measured the amount of antibiotic freely available to target bacteria in human blood plasma, which contains serum proteins that also bind weakly to antibiotics, neutralising their effect against bacteria. This study mimicked an aspect of the complex physiology of human blood in a living patient. and was used to compare effectiveness of a novel antibiotic, oritavancin with the older antibiotic, vancomycin (which is threatened by evolving antimicrobial resistance).[10] 'Perhaps the most obvious diagnostic application,' the researchers concluded 'is to measure the active free drug availability in blood for a particular medical target and thereby determine appropriate doses tailored for individualized patients.'[10]
In 2020, her group reported a new ultra-sensitive virus detection technique based on quantum technologies using localised spins in nanodiamonds.
Nitrogen-vacancy defects