Malama Chisanga

Education:

PhD: University of Manchester (UK), 2020
PDRA: University of Liverpool (UK), 2021
PDF, Universite de Montreal (Canada), 2021 – 2024

Research interests:

We work at the intersection of plasmonic nanomaterials, spectroscopy, and chemometrics, bringing together chemists, engineers, biologists, and data scientists. Our vision is to develop optical diagnostics as innovative solutions to some of the most pressing needs of our time. We're particularly interested in developing low-cost nanosensors and surface chemistry strategies, and understanding how best we can manipulate light-matter interactions at the nanoscale to accomplish rapid and point-of-need disease diagnostics, therapeutic monitoring and environmental surveillance, especially in low-resource settings. We believe that reliable optical sensing and diagnostics require robust artificial intelligence tools that can convert large spectral data sets generated by nanosensors into easy-to-read visual outputs intelligible to non-connoisseurs. To this end, we combine sensing with supervised and unsupervised chemometrics, such as machine learning, to address classification and quantitative prediction challenges in patient stratification, physiology, and chemical pollution at the molecular level.

If our research resonates with your research plan or if you have a topic related to our interests that you'd like to explore in our group, please feel free to reach out.

Selected Awards and Honours:

• Society for Applied Spectroscopy Early Career Grant (Conference/Travel)
• Co-chair for the Surface Plasmonic Resonance (SPR) Section of the SciX2024 Conference
• Best Oral Presentation (Environmental and Mineralogy Groups – Royal Society of Chemistry, UK)
• Commonwealth Research Exhibitor (Commissioners & British Parliamentarians) – Royal Society, UK
• Analytical Chemistry Trust Fund Bursary of the Royal Society of Chemistry, UK (Travel)
• The Royal Society of Chemistry (UK) Early Career Grant – Emerging Analytical Professionals 2019
• Senate Certificate and Shield for the Best Graduating Student
• Academic Excellence Award for the Best Graduating Student
• Commonwealth Scholarship and Fellowship Grant (UK) – Doctoral

Selected Publications:

• R Boudries, H Williams, S Paquereau--Gaboreau, S Bashir, MH Jodaylami, M Chisanga, LE Trudeau, JF Masson (2024) Surface-enhanced Raman Scattering Nanosensing and Imaging in Neuroscience. ACS nano 18, 22620-22647.
• M Chisanga, JF Masson (2024) Machine Learning–Driven SERS Nanoendoscopy and Optophysiology. Annual Review of Analytical Chemistry 17, 313-338.
• M Chisanga, H Williams, D Boudreau, JN Pelletier, S Trottier, JF Masson (2023) Label-free SERS for Rapid Differentiation of SARS-CoV-2-Induced Serum Metabolic Profiles in non-Hospitalized Adults. Analytical Chemistry 95, 3638-3646.
• M Chisanga, M Stuible, C Gervais, D L'Abbé, B Cass, L Bisson, A Pelletier, S Lord-Dufour, Y Durocher, D Boudreau, S Trottier, JN Pelletier, JF Masson (2022) SERS-based Assay for Multiplexed Detection of Cross-reactivity and Persistence of Antibodies Against the Spike of the Native, P.1 and B.1.617.2 SARS-CoV-2 in non-Hospitalised Adults. Sensors & Diagnostics 1, 851-866.
• M Chisanga, H Muhamadali, D McDougall, Y Xu, N Lockyer, R Goodacre (2021) Metabolism in Action: Stable Isotope Probing Using Vibration Spectroscopy and SIMS Reveals Kinetic and Metabolic Flux of Key Substrates. Analyst 146, 1734-1746.
• M Chisanga, H Muhamadali, R Kimber, R Goodacre (2017) Quantitative Detection of Isotopically Enriched E. coli cells by SERS. Faraday discussions 205, 331-343