An article in the newsletter of the Faculty of Engineering at Bar-Ilan University highlighted our recent presentations at the SPIE 2024 Photonics West conference. During the presentations, our Ph.D. student Shmuel Burg and Dr. Michael Margulis, showcased their virus detection patents which were successfully tested during the COVID-19 outbreaks.
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Congratulations to Prof. Amos Danielli, for winning a competitive research grant as part of the national calling for 2023 of the Israeli Ministry of Innovation, Science and Technology.
303 pre-proposals were submitted for this call and Prof. Danielli's study is one of the 62 studies selected for funding in a total amount of approximately 46 million NIS based on the scientific excellence and applicability of the research results.
On January 29th, our Ph.D. student, Shmuel Burg, and our alumnus, Dr. Michael Margulis, presented their groundbreaking research at the Fluorescence II session of the BIOS conference during the SPIE Photonics West 2024 convention held in San Francisco, USA. Prof. Amos Danielli, our principal investigator, served as a joint chairman of the BIOS conference.
In his lecture, Mr. Burg discussed the development from the initial concept to the final commercialization of an automated system with high throughput and high sensitivity for rapidly detecting low-concentration biomarkers. The technology, called high throughput optical modulation biosensing (ht-OMB), was developed in the Optical Imaging and Biosensing Laboratory. During the COVID-19 outbreak, the Israeli government signed a contract with MagBiosense company to develop a fully automatic system (OMBi). Shmuel collaborated with the company's engineers to build the OMBi system, which can also detect other pathogens. The OMBi system was tested with swab samples of 236 healthy individuals and 70 SARS-Cov-2 confirmed patients, showing 100% specificity and 95% sensitivity.
Dr. Margulis gave a lecture where he introduced a new molecular biological test for detecting SARS-CoV-2 using an innovative saliva-based sampling technique. The assay is highly sensitive and takes only 50 minutes, compared to the conventional methods that take 2-3 hours. Additionally, the saliva-based sampling method is less invasive and more accurate than the swab. During the COVID-19 outbreak, a pilot of the method was conducted in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, and a total of 364 people were sampled using both methods. The OMBi results showed that the saliva method had a 95% specificity and 90% sensitivity.
Prof. Danielli specializes in Electro-optics and Bio-photonics. After completing his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in the field of optical communication at Tel Aviv University, he worked in industry for eight years and then return to the Academy. During his studies for P.hD, he developed a new technology to rapidly detect fluorescent-labeled probes at very low concentrations in homogenous solutions and continued developing it during his post-doctoral studies in Washington University, St. Louis.
In 2014, he has returned to Israel and joined the faculty of Engineering at Bar Ilan University.
During his stay in the US, he founded a company that commercializes this technology, and established connections with key figures in the fields of medical laboratory and diagnostics, and especially among troponin and heart attack specialists.
We are always happy to hear from postdocs and students at all levels (BSc., MSc. and PhD.) with various backgrounds (mathematics, engineering, physics, biology) who are interested by the kind of research we are doing. send an email to Amos.danielli2@gmail.com
