Julia Litvinov

• PhD in Biomedical Engineering
• Engineer at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston

Myosin Light Chain (MLC) regulates platelet contraction through its phosphorylation by Myosin Light Chain Kinase (MLCK) or dephosphorylation by Myosin Light Chain Phosphatase (MLCP). The correlation between platelet contraction force and levels of MLC phosphorylation is unknown. We investigate the relationship between platelet contraction force and...

NFκB/RelA triggers innate inflammation by binding to Bromodomain-Containing Protein 4 (BRD4), an atypical histone acetyltransferase (HAT). Although RelA·BRD4 HAT mediates acute neutrophilic inflammation, its role in chronic and functional airway remodeling is not known. We observed that BRD4 is required for TLR3 mediated mesenchymal transition, a c...

A magnetoresistive sensor platform for the detection of individual magnetic reporter particles is presented. The sensing scheme is based on the detection of the shift in the sensor’s magnetoresistance-switching field in the presence of magnetic particle(s). A bottom-pinned spin-valve multilayer (Co/Ru/Co)/Cu/(Co/Ru/Co) device structure (with Ta/Ru...

Airway remodeling is resultant of a complex multi-cellular response associated with a progressive decline of pulmonary function in patients with chronic airway disease. Here, repeated infections with respiratory viruses are linked with airway remodeling through largely unknown mechanisms. Although acute activation of the Toll like receptor (TLR)3 p...

Waterborne pathogens pose significant threat to the global population and early detection plays an important role both in making drinking water safe, as well as in diagnostics and treatment of water-borne diseases. We present an innovative centrifugal sedimentationimmunoassay platform for detection of bacterial pathogens in water. Our approach is b...

We report a novel, modular approach to immuno-detection based on antibody recognition and PCR read-out that employs antibody-conjugated bacteriophage and easily-manipulated non-pathogenic viruses as affinity agents. Our platform employs phage genetically tagged for in vivo biotinylation during phage maturation that can easily be linked, through avi...

An amplification-free, imaging immunoassay is designed using labeled bacteriophage M13 as highly detectable “phage tags” and 1 μm magnetic beads as the immunosensing surface. The immunoassay sandwich is formed by a capture antibody immobilized on the surface of magnetic beads, the analyte and then a second anti-analyte antibody coupled to the phage...

This paper describes synthesis of ultrathin pinhole-free insulating aluminum oxide layers for electronic device protection in corrosive liquid environments, such as phosphate buffered saline (PBS) or clinical fluids, to enable emerging biomedical applications such as biomolecular sensors. A pinhole-free 25-nm thick amorphous aluminum oxide layer ha...

Ion Beam Aperture Array Lithography was applied to top-down fabrication of large dense (10(8)-10(9) particles/cm(2)) arrays of uniform micron-scale particles at rates hundreds of times faster than electron beam lithography. In this process, a large array of helium ion beamlets is formed when a stencil mask containing an array of circular openings i...

Corner cube retroreflectors are objects with three mutually perpendicular reflective surfaces that return light directly to its source and are therefore extremely bright and easy to detect. In this work, we have fabricated suspended corner cube retroreflectors, 5 microns in size, consisting of a transparent epoxy core and three surfaces coated with...

We use corrosion inhibitors, for the first time, to protect GMR biosensor from corrosion in phosphate buffer saline (PBS) solution. A very uniform thin protective film (5-10nm) is formed on the surface of biosensor (including contacts). To make this protective film more effective, a multi-step process is developed. In the first step, protective fil...