Donna M. Omiatek

Donna received a B.S. in Chemistry (2003) from Saint Joseph's University in Philadelphia, PA and a Ph.D. (2010) in Bioanalytical Chemistry from Penn State University. Under the guidance of her Ph.D. advisor, Andrew Ewing, she developed a new method to electrochemically quantify the contents of individual submicron vesicles using a novel microfluidic-based platform, termed Electrochemical Cytometry. By doing so, they were able to investigate how neurotransmission is regulated at the subcellular level through the quantitative analysis of the primary intracellular neurotransmitter storage unit - the secretory vesicle.

Since arriving at NIST, Donna has been working with Wyatt Vreeland (NRC Postdoctoral Sponsor) on developing a platform capable of carrying out the rapid, high-throughput synthesis of radioactive nanoliposomes, phosopholipid-based biological nanoparticles, for use as long-term circulating probes in Position Emission Tomography (PET). Conventional bench-top methods for generating nanoliposomes suffer from the lengthy post-processing procedures required to obtain optimal nanoparticle size control and purity, which can limit the functional lifetime of a liposomal-based radioactive probe. In attempt to overcome these consequences, they have turned to microfluidics as a high-throughput means to synthesize PET-active F18-labeled liposomes in a joint effort with the NIH Imaging Probe Development Center. Currently, they are using advanced light scattering techniques to characterize the microfluidic product generated on single-use PDMS devices in order to determine the optimal synthetic platform for the targeted probes. In future applications, they plan on modifying the microfluidic platform so that the device can be interfaced directly to a laboratory subject at the point of nanoliposome synthesis, which will serve to promote the lifetime of the PET probe and minimize sample handling en route to a fully integrated chip-based radiopharmacy applicable to clinical settings.

Select Publications:

• Omiatek, D. M.; Dong, Y.; Heien, M. L.; Ewing, A. G. "Only a Fraction of Quantal Content is Released During Exocytosis as Revealed by Electrochemical Cytometry of Secretory Vesicles." ACS Chemical Neuroscience, 1 (3), 234-245, 2010.
• Omiatek, D. M.; Santillo, M. F.; Heien, M. L.; Ewing, A. G. "Hybrid Capillary-Microfluidic Device for the Separation, Lysis, and Electrochemical Detection of Vesicles." Analytical Chemistry. 81 (6), 2294-2302, 2009.
• Dominak, L. M.; Omiatek, D. M.; Gundermann, E. L.; Heien, M. L.; Keating, C. D. "Polymeric Crowding Agents Improve Passive Biomacromolecule Encapsulation in Lipid Vesicles." Langmuir, 26 (16), 18273-18280, 2010.