Dr Maïwenn Kersaudy-Kerhoas

My lab is focused on the development of novel microfluidic tools for the separation and purification of circulating nucleic acids from blood, for applications in infectious diseases, oncology and non-invasive prenatal testing.

Personal Profile

Dr Kersaudy-Kerhoas’ research has focused on the development of microfluidic tools for the preparation of human blood samples prior to analytical detection of biomarkers such as DNA, RNA and microRNA. This involves the design of hydrodynamic plasma separation features and the integration of nucleic acid extraction into microfluidic workflows.

She works closely with biologists and clinicians to develop applications in the field of non-invasive prenatal testing, cancer and beyond.

Her interests in Manufacturing Research lie in micro and nanotechnologies, rapid prototyping and the development of cost-effective manufacturing processes for medium to high volume production of polymeric microfluidic components. She is also interested in the replacement of petroleum-derived products by composites derived from renewable resources in the production of high-value microsystems. Dr Kersaudy-Kerhoas has delivered outreach activities about microsystems and microfluidics and would like to change the public attitude towards engineering and manufacturing from passive consumers to active problem solvers.

Dr Kersaudy-Kerhoas graduated from the Institut Superieur de l’Electronique et du Numerique (Brest-Lille, France) and the Technological University of Lille (France) with an MSc in 2005 before joining Heriot-Watt University for a PhD. She was awarded a five year Royal Academy of Engineering fellowship in 2012 (2013-2018) and moved her lab into the DIPM in 2015. In 2017, she won the EPSRC Healthcare Technology Challenge Award (£1.3M, 2018-2022).

Research Themes

• Diagnostics Research
• Global Health

Lab Members

• Dr Maïwenn Kersaudy-Kerhoas, Principal Investigator
• Francesco Lopresti, Post-Doctoral Fellow - (Heriot-Watt)
• Rahat Haque,  PhD Student  - (Heriot-Watt)  
• Ieva Keraite, PhD Student  - (Heriot-Watt)   

Collaborations

• Dr Vincenzo La Carrubba, University of Palermo
• Dr James Dear, University of Edinburgh
• Prof Till Bachmann, University of Edinburgh
• Prof Nick Leslie, Heriot-Watt University

Current funding sources

• Engineering and Phsyical Sciences Research Council 
• Scottish Enterprise
• Medical Research Scotland
• Organ-On-Chip network

Recent publications

A simple and robust real-time qPCR method for the detection of PIK3CA mutations          Alvarez-Garcia, V., Bartos, C., Keraite, I., (...), Oikonomidou, O., Leslie, N.R.    2018    Scientific Reports, 8(1),4290

Laser Ablation of Poly(lactic acid) Sheets for the Rapid Prototyping of Sustainable, Single-Use, Disposable Medical Microcomponents     Ongaro, A.E., Keraite, I., Liga, A., (...), La Carubba, V., Kersaudy-Kerhoas, M. 2018    ACS Sustainable Chemistry and Engineering, 6(4), pp. 4899-4908

MicroRNA-122 can be measured in capillary blood which facilitates point-of-care testing for drug-induced liver injury. Vliegenthart, A.D.B., Berends, C., Potter, C.M.J., Kersaudy-Kerhoas, M., Dear, J.W.         2017 British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, 83(9), pp. 2027-2033

Safe and cost-effective rapid-prototyping of multilayer PMMA microfluidic devices Liga, A., Morton, J.A.S., Kersaudy-Kerhoas, M. 2016   Microfluidics and Nanofluidics, 20(12),164

Microfluidic blood plasma separation for medical diagnostics: Is it worth it?            Mielczarek, W.S., Obaje, E.A., Bachmann, T.T., Kersaudy-Kerhoas, M. 2016