Research Areas
Dr. Hickman’s lab involves the creation of new test-beds of functional human-on-a-chip systems to investigate spinal cord repair, ALS, Alzheimer’s, diabetes, malaria and other diseases. His lab has been heavily involved in integrating biological and cell-based systems with MEMS devices, primarily microelectronic devices. Dr. Hickman published the first serum-free, defined culture system for neuronal systems (Schaffner et al., 1995) and has now extended this from rat to mouse, both embryonic and adult, as well as to human. These defined in vitro systems have now been extended to cardiac, muscle, endothelial, hepatocyte, cancer, kidney and epithelial cells as well as multiple combinations of different cell types, which has culminated by numerous publications of multi-organ systems to evaluate efficacy and toxicity of compounds for application in drug discovery, general toxicology and cosmetics. Sanofi used efficacy data from one of our models to file the first IND utilizing a human-on-a-chip model that has enabled a clinical trial (#NCT04658472). This is described in our joint publication (Rumsey et al. 2022).
Publications
1. J.J. Hickman, C. Zou, D. Ofer, P.D. Harvey, M.S. Wrighton, P.E. Laibinis, C.D. Bain and G.M. Whitesides, “Combining Spontaneous Molecular Assembly with Microfabrication to Pattern Surfaces: Selective Binding of Isonitriles to Platinum Microwires and Characterization by Electrochemistry and Surface Spectroscopy,” J. Am. Chem. Soc. 111:7271 (1989).
2. P.E. Laibinis, J.J. Hickman, M.S. Wrighton and G.M. Whitesides, “Orthogonal Systems for Self-Assembled Monolayers: Alkanethiols on Gold and Alkane Carboxylic Acids on Alumina,” Science 245:845 (1989).
3. N. Leventis, M.O. Schloh, M.J. Natan, J.J. Hickman and M.S. Wrighton, “Characterization of a “Solid-State” Microelectrochemical Diode Employing a Poly (vinyl alcohol)/Phosphoric Acid Solid-State Electrolyte: Rectification at Junctions between WO3 and Polyaniline,” Chem. Mat. 2:568 (1990).
4. J.J. Hickman, D. Ofer, C. Zou, M.S. Wrighton, P.E. Laibinis and G.M. Whitesides, “Selective Functionalization of Gold Microstructures with Ferrocenyl Derivatives via Reaction With Thiols or Disulfides: Characterization by Electrochemistry and Auger Electron Spectroscopy,” J. Am. Chem. Soc. 113:1128 (1991).
5. J.J. Hickman, D. Ofer, P.E. Laibinis, G.M. Whitesides and M.S. Wrighton, “Molecular Self-Assembly of Two-Terminal, Voltammetric Microsensors With Internal References,” Science 252:688 (1991).
6. J.J. Hickman and M.S. Wrighton, “Face-Specific Interactions of Anionic Sulfur Donors with Oriented Crystals of (0001) CdX (X = Se, S) and Correlation with Electrochemical Properties,” J. Am. Chem. Soc. 113:4440 (1991).
7. D.A. Kirkpatrick, G.L. Bergeron, M.A. Czarnaski, J.J. Hickman, M. Levinson, Q.V. Nguyen and B.M. Ditchek, “Measurements of Vacuum Field Emission from a Si-TaSi2 Semiconductor-Metal Eutectic Composite,” Appl. Phys. Lett. 59:2094 (1991).
8. D.A. Kirkpatrick, G.L. Bergeron, M.A. Czarnaski, R.C. Davidson, H.P. Freund, J.J. Hickman, A. Mankofsky, K.T. Tsang, J.M. Schnur, M. Levinson and B.M. Ditchek, “High Brightness Electron Beam Sources for FEL Applications,” Nuclear Instrum. Meth. Phys. Res. (1991).
9. J.J. Hickman, P.E. Laibinis, D.I. Auerbach, C. Zou, T.J. Gardner, G.M. Whitesides and M.S. Wrighton, “Toward Orthogonal Self-Assembly of Redox Active Molecules on Pt and Au: Selective Reaction of Disulfide with Au and Isonitrile with Pt,” Langmuir 8:357 (1992).
10. J.H. Georger, Jr., D.A. Stenger, A.S. Rudolph, J.J. Hickman, C.S. Dulcey and T.L. Fare, “Co-planar Patterns of Self-Assembled Monolayers for Selective Cell Adhesion and Outgrowth,” Thin Solid Films 210/211:716 (1992).
Awards
BioFlorida Researcher of the Year
Fellow, American Vacuum Society
Fellow, American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering
Fellow, National Academy of Inventors (NAI)
Fellow, International Academy of Nanobiotechnology, Florida Association for Nanobiotechnology
