Department of Biology

Duane Juang

Joshua MeiselAssistant Professor of Engineering in Biology

Research Description

Development of novel assay platforms for research and diagnostics

My research focuses on developing novel, enabling tools at the intersection of engineering, chemistry, and biology to address pressing challenges in human health. Our lab harnesses various physical phenomena (fluidics, magnetics) and chemistries (surface chemistry, biomolecular chemistry) to create simple and accessible tools to further biological discovery or advance medical diagnostics. We aim to develop high-throughput functional screening tools employing microbes as "sensors" for the discovery of novel antibiotics, as well as better and more accessible technologies for disease diagnostics at the point-of-care.

We aspire to be enablers of biological discovery, to bring together people and technologies across disciplines to create accessible solutions for improving human health. Although our lab is not limited to a specific disease area, we currently focus on a few key topics, including: (1) the culture and characterization of previously “unculturable” microbes as a source of novel antibiotic discovery; (2) the study of microbial interactions within a community, with the goal of identifying protective or therapeutic microbes relevant to diseases such as Clostridium difficile infection; and (3) the development of high performance diagnostic tools suitable for point-of-care settings. We are especially interested in harnessing emerging technologies such as quantum magnetic sensing to enable low-abundance biomarker detection without needing complex instrumentation.

Selected Publications

  • Juang, D. S.; Wightman, W. E.; Lozano, G. L.; Juang, T. D.; Barkal, L. J.; Yu, J.; Garavito, M. F.; Hurley, A.; Venturelli, O. S.; Handelsman, J.; Beebe, D. J.* Microbial Community Interactions on a Chip. PNAS 2024, 121 (39), e2403510121.
  • Juang, D. S.; Huo, Y.-R.; Tseng, H.-K.; Chen, C.-C.; Hsu, C.-H.; Lin, C.-C.* A Microfluidic Countercurrent Reactor for Accelerating Enzymatic Reactions. ChemCatChem 2023, 15 (17), e202300304.
  • Juang, D. S.; Lang, J. M.; Beebe, D. J.* Volumeless Reagent Delivery: A Liquid Handling Method for Adding Reagents to Microscale Droplets without Increasing Volume. Lab Chip 2022, 22 (2), 286–295.
  • Juang, D. S.†; Juang, T. D.†; Dudley, D. M.; Newman, C. M.; Accola, M. A.; Rehrauer, W. M.; Friedrich, T. C.; O’Connor, D. H.; Beebe, D. J.* Oil Immersed Lossless Total Analysis System for Integrated RNA Extraction and Detection of SARS-CoV-2. Commun. 2021, 12 (1), 4317. †Equal contribution.
  • Juang, D. S.; Berry, S. M.; Li, C.; Lang, J. M.; Beebe, D. J.* Centrifugation-Assisted Immiscible Fluid Filtration for Dual-Bioanalyte Extraction. Chem. 2019, 91 (18), 11848–11855.
  • Juang, D. S.; Lin, C.-H.; Huo, Y.-R.; Tang, C.-Y.; Cheng, C.-R.; Wu, H.-S.; Huang, S.-F.; Kalnitsky, A.; Lin, C.-C.* Proton-ELISA: Electrochemical Immunoassay on a Dual-Gated ISFET Array. Bioelectron. 2018, 117, 175–182.