Biography

Dr. Marco Curreli has been working as Research Scientist (BioSensor Development) at Pharmaco-Kinesis, Inc. since 2011, where he leads the development of sensor for biological entities including bacteria and tumor protein biomarkers. Dr. Curreli received his B.S. in Chemistry from the California State University at Los Angeles (Los Angeles, CA) in 2003 and his Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Southern California (Los Angeles, CA) in 2010.  His dissertation focused on the surface modification of nanomaterials and development of nanobiosensors.  His specific expertise comprises the synthesis and surface modification of metal oxide nanowires, carbon nanotubes, and noble metal electrodes to be used in the development of biological sensors. He is particularly knowledgeable in techniques to immobilize chemical and biological receptors for the selective capture of a target molecules, and methods to suppress non-specific binding of non-target molecules. Some of the applications he researched while at USC include the label-free detection of biomarkers related to infectious disease (SARS) and cancer (prostate cancer).  Prior to joining PKC, Dr. Curreli worked as research scientist (2010) at Intelligent Optical Systems (Pasadena, CA), where he lead the DHS-funded gas and chemical sensing project, and contributed to the development of low-cost bio-analytical assays based on lateral flow test strips for microRNA tumor biomarkers and viral RNA.