Leyla Soleymani is a Professor in the Department of Engineering Physics at McMaster University and a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Miniaturized Biomedical Devices.
Next-generation biological sensors (biosensors) are expected to be handheld, wearable, or implantable and capable of monitoring health- or disease-related molecules in real time. The applications of these biosensors will be life changing: allowing heart attacks to be predicted while still reversible, or cancer recurrence to be detected at an early stage, reducing the probability of metastasis.
Soleymani’s research focuses on developing miniaturized and rapid biological sensors (biosensors) for disease diagnostics and health monitoring at the point-of-need. Her work leverages the programmability of DNA molecules to capture biologically-relevant molecules (biomarkers) and generate changes in electrical signals that can be measured rapidly using inexpensive handheld instrumentation for next generation biosensing.
Soleymani is a leader in the next generation of biosensing research and aims to create a pathway for translating these technologies to the market. This will allow Canada to be a strong leader in the growing wearable healthcare devices market, providing both economic and health benefits to Canadians.