Gloria Thomas

Assistant Professor of Analytical Chemistry

	Gloria Thomas received a B.S. in chemistry (cum laude) from Southern University and A&M College in 1996. She obtained a Ph.D. in analytical chemistry at Louisiana State University and A&M College in 2002. Prior to her appointment as an assistant professor at Mississippi State, Dr. Thomas was a National Research Council Postdoctoral Fellow at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).
	email:
	Thomas research-group home page telephone: (662) 325-5492

Research Interests

Capillary and Microdevice Technology Development
	Research in my group focuses on developing electrophoretic tools for life science applications using electrophoresis, the primary tool of most bioanalytical methods. Using this technique, molecules are separated based upon their size, almost exclusively, according to the movement of electrically charged particles in a conductive medium under the influence of an applied electric field. Fabrication of Polymeric Microdevices The terms "microdevice", "microchip", "lab-on-a-chip" and "BioMEMS - biological micro-electromechanical systems" all refer to the small, versatile, inexpensive, fast devices being introduced in many areas of chemistry and life science. They consist of microstructures embedded in glass or plastic and vary from the very simple device consisting of a simple electrophoretic separation channel to the more complex micro-total analysis systems (μTAS). In this format, electrophoretic separation is performed in a microchannel or trough embedded in glass or plastic substrates with wells that serve as reagent and sample reservoirs. Fabrication techniques used include laser ablation, micromilling, injection molding and hot embossing.
Injection zone of a cross-T μdevice. Channels: 50 x 100 μm (W x D)
Other Areas of Research Fabrication/characterization of polymeric microdevices Development of detection strategies (fluorescence, conductivity, mass spectrometry) Improvement of chromatographic bioseparations Implementation of microfluidics in life science applications
Hydrogel Technology
One area of research in the Thomas Group involves employing photopolymerized polyacrylamide gel plugs in microfluidic channels. Use of these hydrogels allows the physical entrapment of large proteins and/or covalent attachment of DNAs as a conceptually simple method of biomolecule immobilization. In initial studies using simple antibody/antigen models, antigen specific hydrogels were able to capture and concentrate target antigens present at low concentrations with low non-specific binding compared to blank gel plugs. The goal of this project is to apply this concept to relevant models using antibodies, aptamers (antibody-like DNAs) and DNAs.
		False color image of FITC-labeled antibodies physically immobilized within a microfluidic hydrogel.
Existing Collaborations Dr. Shane Burgess, MSU Center for Veterinary Medicine - Hydrogel-based Microfluidics for Transcription Factor Binding Assays in the Avian Lymphoma Model

Publications 2002 - 2007

(CV with full publications)

1. BioMEMS using Electrophoresis for the Analysis of Genetic Mutations, G. Thomas, H. Farquar, S. Sutton, R. Hammer, S. Soper, Expert Review of Molecular Diagnostics 2002, 2, 429 - 447.
2. Microfluidic Devices Fabricated in (poly) methylmethacrylate using Hot-embossing with Integrated Sampling Capillary and Fiber Optics for Fluorescence Detection, Shize Qi, Xueshu Liu, Sean Ford, James Barrows, G. Thomas, et al., Lab on a Chip , 2002, 2, 88 - 95.
3. Detection of Low Abundant Mutations in K-ras for Colorectal Cancer Using Capillary and Microdevice Electrophoresis, G. Thomas, H. Farquar, S. Sutton, R. Sinville, R. Hammer, S. Soper, Electrophoresis, 2004, 25, 1668-1677.
4. Hydrogel-Immobilized Antibodies for Microfluidic Immunoassays in Methods in Molecular Biology on Microfluidics, Thomas, G.; El-Giar, E. M.; Locascio, L. E.; Tarlov, M. J. In Microfluidic Techniques: Reviews and Protocols; Minteer, S. D., Ed.; Humana Press Inc.: Totowa, NJ, 2005; Vol. 321, pp 83-96.