​The digital world and its interface with us are changing the way we live our lives. In medicine, biosensors are key to correct diagnoses, optimal patient care, and controlling health cost. To expand upon the repertoire of signal transduction technologies available, we have developed novel electrochemical DNA sensors based on nucleic acid conformational changes (e.g., hairpin and wrap assay formats). In collaboration with Dr. Meller, we are investigating solid-state nanopores as highly sensitive single molecule sensors for proteins. Finally, the number of real-time biological-based biosensors available is limited by the molecular sensing parts available. In collaboration with Dr. Galagan, we are mining bacteria for their molecular sensing parts (e.g., transcription factors, enzymes, etc), as bacteria have evolved over 3 billion years to detect and respond to virtually all classes of stimuli relevant to our own biology. Using these newly identified sensing parts, we are constructing and evaluating novel optical and electrochemical biosensors with Dr. Klapperich for analytes of interest such as hormones (e.g., progesterone) and addictive agents (e.g., nicotine).