A Sense for Medical Innovation

Dr. Ambalika Tanak

Ambalika Tanak MS’16, PhD’21, who recently completed her graduate studies in biomedical engineering at The University of Texas at Dallas, is developing biosensors to help physicians make faster decisions that could save patients’ lives. Her pioneering work has not only led to recent scientific publications and a pending patent, but also to recognition as one of the top young medical researchers in the country.

One of Tanak’s studies was about a sensor she developed to help surgeons make faster decisions during parathyroid surgery. In another study in the Jan. 1, 2021, issue of Biosensors and Bioelectronics, she and her co-authors described a first-of-its-kind sepsis-testing sensor — DETecT Sepsis (Direct Electrochemical Technique Targeting Sepsis).

Her work on the sepsis device garnered her in 2020 a first-tier Baxter Young Investigator Award, which supports research to develop therapies and medical products that save and sustain patients’ lives. In September 2021, she received the Jess Hay Chancellor’s Graduate Student Research Fellowship from The University of Texas System, which recognizes exemplary academic and research achievements that benefit the state.

Rapid Testing for Sepsis

Dr. Shalini Prasad, department head of bioengineering and the Cecil H. and Ida Green Professor in Systems Biology Science, was Tanak’s advisor and is corresponding author of both studies. She said the sepsis sensor could save lives by identifying the life-threatening complication much faster.

Sepsis is an extreme response to an infection that can lead to tissue damage, organ failure and death. No rapid-testing method exists for the illness.

The sensor is a portable device that monitors a panel of five immune biomarkers using only a single drop of blood plasma, making a diagnosis available within minutes.

“When a patient develops sepsis, every organ thinks it needs to shut down to protect itself. But if every organ shuts down, the person will die,” Prasad said. “It’s a train wreck happening in slow motion. If we could get a snapshot of a patient’s immune response, we can avoid irreversible organ failure or death due to a delayed response time.”

UT Dallas researchers are studying whether the sensor platform used for the sepsis study could be customized to measure other forms of inflammation, including increase in cytokines, which are proteins released by the immune system at the early stages of viral infections, such as COVID-19.

Aid for Surgeons

Tanak’s other sensor device is designed to help surgeons make rapid, informed decisions during parathyroid surgery. Tanak and her co-authors described the technology in a study published online Nov. 2, 2020, in Scientific Reports.

Parathyroid surgery can be challenging for surgeons, who must determine in the operating room how much of the hyperactive gland needs to be removed. Doctors may need to test parathyroid hormone levels in the blood to ensure that the hyperfunctioning part of the gland is removed during the procedure in what can be a time-consuming process using a conventional laboratory testing method. Tanak’s small, portable device, which does not require complicated preparation, helps test the blood faster.

Tanak said she became interested in biomedical engineering after seeing how much doctors relied on medical-device technology to save lives when her grandmother was in the hospital years ago. She worked on a sensor device as an undergraduate student in India and continued her education at UT Dallas because of the opportunities to conduct research on biosensors and to collaborate with investigators at UT Southwestern Medical Center.

“I always wanted to be associated with the medical field,” said Tanak, who began her graduate studies at UT Dallas in 2014. “I wanted to apply engineering principles to solve medical problems. As a biomedical engineer, being able to develop medical-device technology that doctors can use for making informed decisions gives me great satisfaction.”

The next step in Tanak’s journey is Baxter International Inc. — the same medical technology and health care company that supported her graduate research. In March she joined the company as a senior systems engineer at its world headquarters in Deerfield, Illinois.

– Kim Horner