Kiana Aran Explained

Prof. Kiana Aran
Alma Mater:Keck Graduate Institute
City College of New York
Rutgers University
Thesis Title:Development of microfluidic platform for continuous extraction of diagnostics plasma proteins from whole blood during cardiac surgery
Thesis Url:http://hdl.rutgers.edu/1782.1/rucore10001600001.ETD.000063985
Thesis Year:2012

Kiana Aran is a biomedical entrepreneur and Associate Professor at both UC San Diego's School of Medicine and UC San Diego's Jacobs School of Engineering in the Department of Bioengineering.[1] She is also the Chief Innovation Officer at Paragraf Ltd. Paragraf, a UK-based semi-conductor company, acquired Cardea Bio Inc.,[2] which she co-founded and ran as the Chief Science Offer. She has also helped co-found CRISPR QC Inc.[3] that offers a CRISPR Analytics Platform that helps pharma and biotech companies optimize their gene editing research. Her overall research and inventions are focused around developing technologies and bioelectronics for multi-omics studies and applications, especially when they enable products and technologies for studying the mechanisms of healthy aging. She became known as the pioneer of fusing CRISPR and electronics, resulting in the CRISPR-chip technology that is being used to improve the quality of genotyping and gene editing. She was awarded the 2021 Nature – Estée Lauder Research Award for Inspiring Women in Science.

Early life and education

Aran was an undergraduate student at City College of New York and majored in electrical engineering.[4] She was a graduate student at Rutgers University, where she focused on biomedical engineering.[5] For her doctoral research she worked on a microfluidic platform for the extraction of diagnostic plasma proteins.[6] The microfluidic platform was designed to work in a clinical environment and offer the continuous monitoring of the inflammatory response of patients undergoing cardiac surgeries. The system designed by Aran comprised a two-compartment mass chamber, which allows for the continuous separation of blood plasma from blood cells with no evidence of cell lysis. A 200 nm pore size membrane can extract 15% of pure plasma at high sampling frequencies. She moved to the University of California, Berkeley as a graduate student, where she worked on bioelectronics.[7]

Research and career

Aran has continued to develop novel bioelectronics and biosensing platforms and their applications. She invented the CRISPR-chip, an electronic sensor that uses CRISPR-Cas to scan genomes and samples of nucleic acid for disease mutations.[8] The chip integrates Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeat (CRISPR) with single molecule graphene field-effect transistors to generate electronic signals when CRISPR interacts with target DNA/RNA.[9] [10] She has demonstrated that the CRISPR-Chip can detect the mutations associated with sickle cell and Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

Aran was the co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Cardea, a biotechnology company.[11]

Awards and honors

Notes and References

  1. https://jacobsschool.ucsd.edu/people/profile/kiana-aran
  2. https://www.semi.org/en/resources/member-directory/cardea-bio-inc
  3. https://www.crisprqc.com/post/crispr-qc-co-founder-kiana-aran-makes-inc-s-2023-female-founders-list
  4. Web site: Kiana Aran. 2021-11-03. Keck Graduate Institute. en-US.
  5. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/dr-kiana-aran-2nd-woman-since-1960-to-receive-rutgers-distinguished-engineer-medal-of-excellence-award-301602241.html
  6. Book: Aran. Kiana. Development of microfluidic platform for continuous extraction of diagnostics plasma proteins from whole blood during cardiac surgery. Rutgers University. Graduate School--New Brunswick. 2012. English. 785706174.
  7. Web site: News: CRISPR-Chip Inventor Kiana Aran Wins Major Women in Science Award. 2021-11-03. CRISPR Medicine. en.
  8. Web site: Dr. Kiana Aran of Cardea Bio wins the 2021 Nature Research Award for Scientific Achievement. 2021-11-03. uk.finance.yahoo.com. en-GB.
  9. Web site: 2021-02-24. Dr. Kiana Aran Receives Prestigious NSF Career Award. 2021-11-03. Keck Graduate Institute. en-US.
  10. Hajian. Reza. Balderston. Sarah. Tran. Thanhtra. deBoer. Tara. Etienne. Jessy. Sandhu. Mandeep. Wauford. Noreen A.. Chung. Jing-Yi. Nokes. Jolie. Athaiya. Mitre. Paredes. Jacobo. June 2019. Detection of unamplified target genes via CRISPR–Cas9 immobilized on a graphene field-effect transistor. Nature Biomedical Engineering. en. 3. 6. 427–437. 10.1038/s41551-019-0371-x. 31097816 . 6556128 . 2157-846X.
  11. Web site: 2021-10-28. Dr. Kiana Aran of Cardea Bio wins the 2021 Nature Research Award for Scientific Achievement. 2021-11-03. www.businesswire.com. en.
  12. Web site: Writer. Clinical OMICs Staff. 2020-03-24. The Clinical OMICs 10 Under 40. 2021-11-03. Clinical OMICs - Molecular Diagnostics in Precision Medicine. en-US.
  13. Web site: Athena LWC Summit & Pinnacle Awards. 2021-11-03. Athena. en.
  14. 2004. Columbus librarian receives prestigious award. 2021-11-03. PsycEXTRA Dataset. 10.1037/e562792009-002 .
  15. Web site: 2021-10-28. Dr. Kiana Aran's Achievements as a Biotech Leader Honored in 2021 Nature Research Awards for Inspiring Women in Science. 2021-11-03. Keck Graduate Institute. en-US.
  16. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/dr-kiana-aran-makes-incs-2023-female-founders-list-301789921.html
  17. https://www.nationalacademies.org/news/2024/02/new-voices-program-for-emerging-stem-leaders-announces-new-members
  18. https://www.instagram.com/ucsandiegoengineering/p/C33ciGnSKg3/

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