2004 Sixth Annual Beckman Scholars Symposium
Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation
Dr. Ellington is also actively involved in the commercial transition of his technologies, via a Boston-based company that he helped found, Archemix. He also serves on the Scientific Advisory Board for an Austin company, Ambion.

"Development of Nucleic Acid Biosensors"

Andy Ellington, Ph.D.
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
University of Texas at Austin
Austin, TX

The Ellington lab has for several years worked on adapting functional nucleic acid binding species (atpamers) to function as biosensors. While proteins are normally thought of a biopolymer receptors and recognition elements, nucleic acids have several advantages over proteins, the main one of which is that they are extremely tractable to engineering. Because of this, it has proven possible to both design and select nucleic acid conformational changes that can specifically signal the presence of cognate ligands. Dr. Ellington will provide several case studies of biosensor engineering, including the development aptamer chip arrays, aptamer beacons and catalytic nucleic acid biosensors, so-called aptazymes. These nucleic acid biosensors have been adapted to a variety of platforms, including optical biosensors and devices such as microcantilevers that can sensitively detect ligands even in the absence of any labels. This work highlights the importance of interdisciplinary research, and also the need to have students who think boldly about how to cross the artificial barrier between science and engineering

Dr. Ellington was born in Independence, MO in 1959. He received a BS degree in Biochemistry from Michigan State University in 1981, and a PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Harvard University in 1988. He was a post-doctoral fellow in the Department of Genetics at Harvard Medical School, and worked at Massachusetts General Hospital until 1992. From 1992 to 1998 he was an assistant professor of Chemistry at Indiana University. Currently, he is a Wilson M. and Kathryn Fraser Research Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Texas at Austin.

Dr. Ellington's expertise is in evolutionary engineering: adapting molecules and organisms to particular functions and applications. Some of his more recent work has focused on developing methods for tagging, sensing, following, and inactivating biological threat agents. These emphases have been prompted by interactions with the military and intelligence communities, including appointments as an Office of Naval Research Young Investigator, a participant in the Defense Science Studies Group of the Institute for Defense Analyses, a member of the Homeland Defense Science summer study for the Defense Science Board, and currently a member of various ‘red teams.’


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