About McDevitt - McDevitt Research Labs Rice University

Nanomedicine; integrated lab-on-a-chip sensors; clinical chemistry; point of care diagnostics; affordable healthcare; micro-electro-mechanical (MEMs) devices; cardiovascular disease; saliva-based diagnostics; cancer diagnostics; infectious diseases; pathogen detection; cell imaging systems; image-based sensors; multi-class (combined cellular, genomic, proteomic, general chemistry panels) multi-plexed sensor systems

The lab is directed by John T. McDevitt who serves as the Brown-Wiess Professor of Bioengineering and Chemistry at Rice and is a pioneer in the development of integrated "bio-nano-chip" technologies. The McDevitt group combines nanometer-sized molecular sensors with microchip-based technology to create devices that can rapidly analyze complex fluids to detect toxins, drugs, antibodies, metabolites, bacteria, blood products and more. For the past 14 years, the McDevitt lab has focused on developing inexpensive, battery-powered diagnostic devices that can replace high-cost, lab-based, time-consuming diagnostic tests. These easy-to-use, low-cost devices have immense potential to impact clinical medicine, both in developing countries where traditional laboratory measurements are not practical and in developed countries seeking to reduce health care costs.

The McDevitt lab research has been supported by the National Institutes of Health, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Welch Foundation, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the National Science Foundation and the Office of Naval Research. The lab has written co-authored more than 170 peer-reviewed scientific manuscripts and written more than 150 patents and patent applications. This work led to one of the largest patent portfolios in the history of the University of Texas at Austin, and these innovations were chosen one of the Best of What's New in 2008 by Popular Science and one of the Best Scientific Advances of 1998 by the Science Coalition. The McDevitt lab co-founded LabNow, an Austin-based startup, to commercialize lab-on-a-chip diagnostic technology in 2004. The company's bio-nano-chip for HIV/AIDS immune function diagnostics is undergoing clinical trials and has completed human trials in both a Boston hospital setting and in an HIV reference laboratory in Botswana, Africa.

McDevitt serves as the Principal Investigator for 5 major clinical trials involving the programmable bio-nano-chip for major diseases in the areas of cardiac heart disease, oral cancer, ovarian cancer and prostate cancer. He has recently established the "Texas Cancer Diagnostics Pipeline" and serves at the Director for the newly formed "Early Disease Detection Gulf Coast Consortium Cluster" thereby creating a network of over 100 clinical researchers devoted to next generation of affordable diagnostics.