Carnegie Mellon University

James Schneider

James Schneider

Professor of Chemical Engineering

Research

The Schneider lab is developing rapid, highly selective biosensing and bioseparation platforms based on principles of molecular self-assembly and other aspects of nanotechnology.  A major thrust is the development of gel-free methods to rapidly resolve nucleic acids in capillary and microchip electrophoresis.  Applications for this technology include quantitative analysis of trace miRNA from biological samples, rapid analysis of STR loci for human identification, and separation of long (>1000 base) DNA for high-throughput sequencing.  Other research interests include measurement of dynamic wetting phenomena and biological interactions using AFM and characterization of polymer thin films.  We collaborate with the Ly lab and the Armitage lab in the design of peptide nucleic acid amphiphiles for bioanalytical chemistry, and with the CMU MEMS lab (Prof. Tamal Mukherjee) for design and fabrication of microscale devices that best leverage our rapid, gel-free electrophoresis methods.

Publications

Goldman, J.M.;Zhang, L.A.; Armitage, B.A.; Lee, D.H; Schneider, J.W. High Affinity γPNA Sandwich Hybridization Assay for Rapid Detection of Short Nucleic Acid Targets with Single Mismatch Discrimination. submitted to Biomacromolecules 2013.

Istivan, S.B.; Jones, A.; Grosser, S.T.; Schneider J.W. Rapid, Free-Solution Electrophoretic Separation of DNA Enabled by Size Fluctuations of End-Attached Surfactant Micelles. submitted to Analytical Chemistry 2013.

Savard, J.M.; Grosser, S.T.; Schneider, J.W. Length-Dependent DNA Separations using Multiple End-attached Peptide Nucleic Acid Amphiphiles in Micellar Electrokinetic Chromatography. Electrophoresis 2008, 29:2779-2789.

Grosser, S.T.; Savard, J.M.; Schneider, J.W. Identification of PCR Products using Peptide Nucleic Acid Amphiphiles in Micellar Electrokinetic Chromatography. Anal. Chem 2007, 79:9513-9519.

Vernille, J.P.; Kovell, L.C.; Schneider, J.W. Peptide Nucleic Acid (PNA) Amphiphiles:  Synthesis, Self-Assembly, and Duplex Stability. Bioconj. Chem. 2004, 15:1314-1321.