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Current Appointments
Robinson
Professor of Chemistry, Department of Chemistry
Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor
Adjunct Professor of Biomedical Engineering
Education
Postdoctoral Research Associate, 1979-81, Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
Cambridge, MA
Ph.D., 1979 (Chemical Biology), SUNY at Stony Brook, Stony Brook, New York
B.S. 1974 (Chemistry), University of Michigan, Ann
Arbor, Michigan
Research Interests
Bioanalytical Chemistry, Materials Chemistry, Biochemistry and
Nanoscience. The Walt group's research effort employs optical fiber
microarrays for the detection and analysis of single molecules. Single enzyme
molecules are enclosed with fluorogenic substrate in an array of thousands of
individually addressable microchambers etched into a glass optical fiber bundle.
The large array size provides excellent statistics. The substrate turnover in
the microchambers can be monitored with fluorescence microscopy. The results of
these experiments provide mechanistic insight into enzyme mechanisms. In
addition to these fundamental studies, they have also developed single molecule
methods for high sensitivity DNA and protein detection. In another project the
Walt lab is investigating the limits to creating high-density sensing arrays
containing thousands of microsensors and nanosensors and are preparing arrays to
perform high density nucleic acid and protein analysis. One application of this
effort is an integrated diagnostic platform for performing medical diagnostics
using saliva as a sample instead of blood. The arrays can also be used to study
living cells, both as cell populations as well as individual cells, and analyze
the contents of individual cells by integrating microfluidics with single
molecule detection. They are also studying the behavior of large numbers of
cells to understand the distribution of cell behaviors in a population.
Recent Selected Publications
"Detection and Classification of
Ignitable Liquid Residues using a Fluorescence-Based Vapor-Sensitive Microsphere
Array", M. J. Aernecke, D. R. Walt, J. Forensic. Sci., 2010, 55,
178-184.
"Synthesis and Biological Testing of Penicillins: An Investigative Approach to
the Undergraduate Teaching Laboratory" , R. D. Whitaker, L. Truhlar, D. Yuksel,
D. R. Walt, M. Williams, J. Chem. Edu., 2010, 87,
634-636.
"Analytical Chemistry on the Femtoliter Scale", H. H. Gorris, D. R. Walt.
Ang. Chemie, 2010, 49, 3880-3895.
"Visualizing Fluorescence: Using a Homemade Fluorescence 'Microscope' to View
Latent Fingerprints on Paper" C. N. LaFratta, D. R. Walt, S. P. Huh, A.
Mallillin, P. Riviello. J. Chem. Edu., 2010, 87, 1105-1107.
"Single-molecule enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay detects serum proteins at
subfemtomolar concentrations", D. M. Rissin, C. W. Kan, T. G. Campbell, S. C.
Stuart, D. R. Fournier, L. Song, T. Piech, P. P. Patel, L. Chang, A. J. Rivnak,
E. P. Ferrell, J. D. Randall, G. K. Provuncher, D. R. Walt, D. C. Duffy,
Nature Biotechnology, 2010, 28, 595-599.
"Optical-fiber
arrays for vapor sensing", Aernecke, Matthew J.;
Walt, David R. Sensors and Actuators, B: Chemical,
2009, B142, 464-469.
"Infochemistry
and infofuses for the chemical storage and transmission of coded information"
Thomas, Samuel W., III; Chiechi, Ryan C.; Lafratta, Christopher N.; Webb,
Michael R.; Lee, Andrew; Wiley, Benjamin J.; Zakin, Mitchell R.; Walt, David R.;
Whitesides, George M. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 2009, 106, 9147-9150.
"Intelligent Medical
Diagnostics via Molecular Logic", Konry, Tania; Walt,
David R., J. Amer. Chem. Soc.,
2009,
131, 13232-13233.
Complete listing of publications can be found
HERE
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