ECE alum invents bio-reader, wins $100,000 Coulter prize

Perry Sandstrom (32K JPG)

Perry Sandstrom (BS '88) had something of an "out of body" experience in November. The 36-year-old COE electrical engineer found himself in a tuxedo, in a room filled with presidents, deans, CEOs and VIPs. He was on a stage, framed by lights and large projection screens, accepting the $100,000 Wallace H. Coulter Award for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. It was a far cry from the quiet basement electronics shop where he built the DNA chip reader that garnered him the award.

His invention, The SynchroGene™ Reader, represents a simpler, faster, more cost-effective way of analyzing hybridization microarrays, otherwise known as DNA chips or biochips. DNA chips are facilitating breakthrough discoveries in medicine and the biosciences with their ability to look for specific gene sequences from the billions represented in a genetic code.

"In the near future, microarray manufacturers should be able to provide clinically-relevant probes for all 35,000 human genes on a single DNA chip," says Sandstrom. "If most diseases are accompanied by changes in gene expression levels, then ultimately doctors may be able to identify a person's disease and best course of treatment by looking at their gene expression profile. That's just one potential application of DNA chips. The implications of DNA chip technology are enormous. My hope is that this chip reader invention may enable the eventual migration of DNA chip technology from a research tool to a clinical diagnostic."

Researchers worldwide use ready-made DNA chips as a primary tool for genomics research. Scientists expose probe sites included on a chip to a fluorescently labeled sample of genetic material. Fluorescence from the sample "sticks" to a matching genetic sequence on the DNA chip. Because the probe sites on the DNA chip are known, the sample can be identified.

Currently, Sandstrom says, finding those microscopic fluorescent sites involves a complex, time consuming, image-processing approach using specialized scanners costing up to $200,000. The equipment is mechanically complex and expensive to maintain. Sandstrom classifies his invention, which contains no moving parts, as a reader rather than a scanner.

"It directly produces values for selectively interrogated probe sites without the need to first create a scanned image of the entire DNA chip," he says. "That's valuable in a number of ways. But most important is the fact that you can selectively read any probe site in any order. Current technology can't do that. It means there is no need to read the whole chip if only a few sites are being evaluated. This is not only a big time saver, it also has significant implications for noise reduction during analysis of a chip-based assay."

Invention has always been a part of Sandstrom's life. He says his father, a skilled machinist, exposed him to the practical aspects of design and aesthetics. As an electrical engineering undergraduate he worked under Materials Science and Engineering Professor Max Lagally building the electronics for a scanning tunneling microscope.

Sandstrom is named on several patents stemming from work with his father and as an engineer for the college. He is currently an electrical engineer for the Wisconsin Center for Space Automation and Robotics. His work is part of projects aboard the International Space Station.

It was through social contacts with graduate students in genetics that Sandstrom first became interested in biotechnology in the late 1980s. "When I learned that much of the equipment in biochemistry had basically remained unchanged since the seventies, I started talking with friends about how to apply newer electronics technology to various types of experimental setups," he says. "Ultimately, that led to my interest in biotechnology instrumentation."

Sandstrom's $100,000 prize will help fund the development of the SynchroGene Reader through his company Able Signal LLC. The prize has given him reason to consider all kinds of purchases he might not otherwise be able to make. "But," he says, "what I really want is a nice oscilloscope."