Connie B. Chang, Ph.D.

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SUMMARY

Connie B. Chang, Ph.D., seeks to understand heterogeneous microbial populations at the single-cell level and how single cells can collectively contribute to overall population dynamics. Her laboratory specializes in the fabrication and application of drop-based microfluidics for high-throughput and diagnostic studies of infectious disease, including bacterial biofilms and RNA viruses.

Focus areas

• Application of drop-based microfluidics for single-cell and virus culturing to understand how viral population structure and dynamics give rise to emergent behaviors in fitness and transmissibility of RNA viruses, using single-cell sequencing and drop analyses.
• Development of rapid and multiplexed assaying of bacterial antibiotic resistances by identifying the efficacy of single or combined drug treatments and minimum inhibitory concentrations at the single-cell level.
• Investigation of the structural and functional heterogeneity of bacterial biofilms in chronic wounds and cystic fibrosis to understand how individual bacterial cells communicate with one another in complex biofilms.
• Understanding the interactions of immune cells with pathogens in the gastrointestinal tract using microfluidic tissue chip devices, also called microphysiological systems, specifically gastric and intestinal organoids-on-chip models.

Significance to patient care

Dr. Chang's lab aims to engineer new technologies for performing translational research. Research developed in the laboratory is currently being commercialized into a point-of-care device.

The lab's ongoing research can help develop better vaccines and therapeutics to target fast-evolving viruses. Another focus in her lab is the development of innovative diagnostic methods that could save the lives of those with sepsis and other life-threating infections.

Professional highlights

• Standing member; Instrumentation and Systems Development Study Section; Bioengineering, Biodata and Biomodeling Technologies Review Branch; National Institutes of Health; 2022-present.
• Innovation Accelerator Award, Office of Translation to Practice, Mayo Clinic, 2024.
• Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award, National Science Foundation, 2018.