Sefi Vernick

Postdoctoral Research Associate


Email: vernicks@ee.columbia.edu

Ph.D. Electrical Engineering, Dept. of Physical Electronics and Dept. of Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology, Tel-Aviv University, Israel 2012

M.Sc. Biotechnology, Dept. of Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology, Tel-Aviv University, Israel 2005

B.Sc. Biology, Tel-Aviv University, Israel 2003

PhD research entitled: “Integrated multi-method biosensing for colorectal cancer diagnostics” has proposed, designed and demonstrated feasibility of a biosensing system comprised of a combination of bio-electrochemical and bio-electromechanical assays integrated into an analytical system performing complementary diagnostic tests directly on colorectal cancer biopsy and cell samples. The data collected by the biosensing system provided valuable information regarding the expression of intracellular, membrane bound and secreted biomarkers. The system and method were successfully applied in human clinical trials.
Main activities: bio-electrochemical sensors, electrochemistry, chemical engineering, microelectronic fabrication, cell biology, molecular biology, MEMS, multiplexed electrochemical immunoassays,(incl. ‘whole cell’), single cell mechanical measurements, Protein chemistry and modifications.

MSc thesis entitled: “Directed Metallization of Single Enzyme Molecule with Preserved Biological Activity” has developed a method for electroless deposition of metals targeted to the surface of soluble protein molecules while retaining their enzymatic or binding activities.
Main activities: biochemistry, enzymology, chemical modifications, different nano and micro analysis techniques, electroless deposition, combination of biological and microelectronic technologies Currently, I am involved in the development of new single molecule field-effect transistors. Main activities: Integration of electrical and electrochemical methods for towards high-confidence diagnosis

Publications

  •  Vernick S., Moscovich-Dagan H., Porat-Ophir C., Rishpon J., Freeman A. (2009) “Directed Metallization of Single-Enzyme Molecules with Preserved Enzymatic Activity” IEEE Transactions on Nanotechnology, Vol. 8 (1) 95.
  •  Vernick S., Freeman A., Rishpon J., and Shacham-Diamand Y. (2009) “Direct Biopsy Screening of Colorectal Cancer by Electrochemical Biosensor” ECS Transactions, 19 (33) 61-68
  •  Vernick S., Freeman A., Rishpon J., Niv Y., Vilkin A., Shacham-Diamand Y. (2011) “Electrochemical Biosensing for Direct Biopsy Slices Screening for Colorectal Cancer Detection”. J Electrochem Soc 158(1), P1-P4
  •  Vernick S., Freeman A., Shacham-Diamand Y., “A Multiplexed Electrochemical Immunoassay for Colon Cancer Biomarker Panel”. (2013)To be submitted
  •  Vernick S., Freeman A., Shacham-Diamand Y., “A ‘Whole Cell’ Bio-electrochemical Immunoassay for The Evaluation of EGFR Expression Level”. (2013)To be submitted
  •  Vernick S., Freeman A., Niv Y., Vilkin A., Shacham-Diamand Y., “Direct Electrochemical Biopsy Screening for Colon Cancer: Report Of Clinical Trials”. (2013) To be submitted
  •  Vernick S., Shmilovich T., Freeman A., Shacham-Diamand Y., “A New MEMS Device for Cell Manipulation, Analysis and Diagnosis: The Bioram” (2013) To be submitted
  •  Vernick S., Freeman A., Niv Y., Vilkin A., Shacham-Diamand Y., “Electrochemical Detection of Enzymatic Activity from Preserved (Formalin Fixed) Tissue Samples”. (2013) To be submitted
  •  Mor G., Vernick S., Moscovich-Dagan H., Dror Y. and Freeman A. (2011) “Novel Biologically Active Silver—Avidin Hybrids” J. Phys. Chem. C 115, 22695
  • Almog R., Daniel R., Vernick S., Ron A., Ben-Yoav H., and Shacham-Diamand Y. (2009) “On-Chip Detection of Cellular Activity” Adv Biochem Engin/Biotechnol                                                   Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
  •  Ben-Yoav, H., Yorish, S., Elad, T., Vernick, S., Belkin, S. and Shacham-Diamand,  Y. (2007). “A Novel Micro-Fluidic Whole Cell Biosensor for Water Toxicity Analysis Using Bioluminescence Detection”. Proceedings of MicroTAS 07, v 2, 1049-1052.
  •  Shacham-Diamand Y., Belkin S., Rishpon J., Elad T., Melamed S.,                                               Biran A., Yagur-Kroll S., Almog R., Daniel R., Ben-Yoav H., Rabner A., Vernick                                                 S., Elman N. and Popovtzer R. (2010) “Optical and Electrical Interfacing Technologies for Living Cell Bio-Chips” Current Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, 11 (4), 1-7
  • Ben-Yoav H., Biran A., Vernick S., Sternheim M., Belkin S., Freeman A. and Shacham-Diamand Y. (2011) “Functional modeling of electrochemical whole-cell biosensors” To be submitted

Patents

  • Rishpon J., Popovtzer R., Shacham-Diamand, Y., Neufeld T., Vernick S., “Methods of Detecting Cancer Cells and Use of Same for Diagnosing and Monitoring Treatment of The Disease” US patent no. 8,268,577 B2, European patent no. EP 2 142 661 B1
  • Shacham-Diamand Y., Vernick                                               S., Niv Y., Rishpon J., Freeman A., “Methods Of Determining Enzyme Activity in Preserved Cell Samples” (2010), PCT patent application: PCT/IL2012/050258
  • Vernick Sefi, Shacham-Diamand Y., Rishpon J.,Mossberg M. “Methods of detecting Melanoma” (2012) US provisional patent application
  • Vernick Sefi, Shacham-Diamand Y., Rishpon J.,Vaisman O., “A Point-Of-Care Bio Electrochemical System for The Detection of Multiple Functional Biomarkers” (2012) US provisional patent application
  • Vernick S., Shmilovich T., Shacham-Diamand Y., Krylov V., “A Micro-electromechanical device for cell manipulation, analysis and diagnosis and biomechanical methods for accomplishing same” (2011) US provisional patent application 
  • Freeman A., Shacham-Diamand Y., Vernick S., Moscovich-Dagan H., “Biologically active metal-coated proteins”. (2005) US provisional patent application