Omowunmi Sadik 

Omowunmi Sadik joined the Binghamton faculty in 1996 and holds two patents for her work on sensors, including one that allows doctors to take readings for the HIV virus in minutes rather than the three-to-four days required by current tests. Her research also focuses on an electronic nose and microelectrode biosensors that are able to detect trace amounts of organic materials. Applications for this technology include drug detection, in place of drug-sniffing dogs, and bomb detection. Her work has numerous civilian and military applications.

Prof. Omowunmi Sadik has discovered many things in life, perhaps none more important than the value of challenging traditional perspectives in order to find new solutions to old problems. She is an internationally recognized researcher, known for her advancements in basic and applied research in bioanalytical and environmental chemistry. Her research interests include chemical and biosensors, electroanalysis, and the use of electrochemical and spectroscopic techniques for studying human exposure assessment, endocrine disrupters, and toxicity of naturally occurring chemical compounds.
 
Sadik joined the faculty at Binghamton University in 1996 after serving as a National Research Postdoctoral Fellow at the US-EPA National Exposure Research Laboratory in Las Vegas, Nevada. She has received numerous merit awards for her scholarship, including the Chancellor’s Award for Research in Science and Medicine in 2001 and the Chancellor’s Award for Premier Inventors in 2002. She was also a visiting research scientist at the Naval Research Laboratories in Washington, D.C.in 2001.

Currently, her groundbreaking research focuses on microelectrode biosensors that are able to detect even trace amounts of organic materials. By turning the traditional approach to sensor development on its ear, she has developed several iterations of what can best be described as an “electronic nose.” Myriad applications for this technology include drug detection (in the place of drug-sniffing dogs) and bomb detection. She is also exploring a patent strategy for another technology that would provide an improved approach for recycling metal ions from industrial and environmental wastes. Sadik's objective is to understand the time and spatial concentrations of these pollution analytes in response to chemical and physical stimuli. Ascertaining these behaviors will likely contribute to the understanding of the fate and transport of organochlorine compounds in the environment, and thus help to reveal possible detoxification mechanisms.

Sadik holds two patents for her work on a sensor that allows doctors to take readings for the HIV virus in minutes rather than the three to four days required by the ELISHA test.

Selected publications:

1.  Yan F., Sadik O. A., "Enzyme Modulated Cleavage of dsDNA for Studying the Interfacial Biomolecular Interactions, J. Am. Chem. Soc., Vol.123, No.46, pp11335 - 11340, 2001.
      
2. Yan F., Sadik O. A., "Enzyme Modulated Cleavage of dsDNA for Supramolecular Design of Biosensors," Analytical Chemistry, 73, pp5272-5280, 2001.
      
3. Frances S. Ligler, Marc Breimer, Joel P. Golden, Delana A. Nivens, James P. Dobson, and Omowunmi A. Sadik, “Integrating Waveguide Biosensor,” Analytical Chemistry, 74, 713-719, 2002.

4. Sadik O. A., Cheung M. C., "Monitoring the Specific Adsorption of Proteins Using EQCM," Talanta, Vol 55/5, pp 929 - 941, 2001.
      
5. Breimer M., Yevgheny E., Sadik O. A., "Incorporation of Metal Particles in Polymerized Organic Conducting Polymers - A Mechanistic Insight," Nano Letters, Vol. 1 (Issue #6), June 13, 2001.
      
6. Yan F., Erdem A., Meric B., Kerman K., Ozsoz M., Sadik O. A., "Electrochemical DNA Biosensors for Gene Related Microcystis species," Electrochemistry Communications, Vol. 3, pp 224-228, 2001.
      
7. Sargent A., Matienzo L., Sadik O. A., "Probing the Mechanism of Electroless Gold Plating Using an Electrochemical Quartz Crystal Microbalance" -Part 1, J. Electrochemical Society, Vol 148 (No.4) C257-C265, 2001.
      
8. Sargent A., Sadik O. A., "Probing the Mechanism of Electroless Plating Using EQCM" -Part 2, J. Electrochemical Society, Vol 148 (No.6), C413-C420, 2001.
      
9. Sargent A., Sadik O. A., "Impedance and Morphological Properties of Electroless Gold on Industrial Metal Coupons," Langmuir, Vol 17(9), pp2760-2767, 2001.
      
10. Yan F., Mcnally R., Kontakis E., Sadik O. A., "Preliminary Quantitative Investigation of Postmortem Adipocere Formation," J. Forensic Sciences, Vol. 46(2), pp 185-190, 2001.
      
11. Emrah Kilinc., Ozsoz M., Sadik O. A., "Electrochemical Detection of NO by Inhibition of Oxidase Activity," Electroanalysis, Vol. 12(No.5) pp658-662, 2001.
      
12. Sadik O. A., Cheung M. C., "Computer Simulation of Basic Electronic Circuits used in Chemical Instrumentation," J. Chemical Education, vol. 78 (No.5), pp 658-662, 2001.
      
13. Xu H., Sadik O. A., "A Simple Fiber Optic Sensor for Monitoring Hydroxide Levels in Unusual pH range," Analyst, Vol. 125, 1783-1786, 2000.