Faculty & Staff

 

Angelika Niemz, PhD

 
Angelika Niemz
Areas of Expertise

Medical Diagnostics, Nucleic Acid Testing, Infectious Diseases

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Dr. Angelika Niemz, a native of Germany, received her undergraduate degree in chemistry in 1992 at the University of Konstanz in Germany and her PhD in chemistry in 1999 at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. After working as a postdoctoral fellow in chemical engineering at the California Institute of Technology, she joined KGI in February 2002 as an Assistant Professor. In 2008, she became an Associate Professor. In 2009, after a six-month sabbatical where she worked for Roche Molecular Diagnostics in Switzerland, she began serving as Director of Research at KGI. She was promoted to Department Chair of Business and Bioengineering for the Henry E. Riggs School of Applied Life Sciences in March 2021, to Associate Dean of Faculty in October 2022, and she became the Dean of the Riggs School of Applied Life Sciences in January 2025.

Dr. Niemz teaches courses on medical diagnostics and high throughput technologies for biomarker and drug discovery at KGI. She has obtained independent research funding from the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and the Department of Defense, and has frequently served on grant review panels. Beyond her research and other scholarly activities, she obtained funding for and organized a summer undergraduate research program at KGI.

  • “Integrated nucleic acid testing system to enable TB diagnosis in peripheral settings” Lu H.W., Sakamuri R, Kumar P, Ferguson T.M., Doebler R.W., Herrington K.D., Talbot R.P., Weigel K.M., Nguyen F.K., Cangelosi G.A., Narita M., Boyle D.S., Niemz, A. Lab Chip, 2020, 20, 4071
  • “Pilot study of a rapid and minimally instrumented sputum sample preparation method for molecular diagnosis of tuberculosis” Ferguson, T.M.; Weigel, K.M.; Annie Lakey-Becker, A.; Ontengco, D.; Narita, M.; Tolstorukov, I.; Doebler, R.; Cangelosi, G.A.; Niemz, A. Scientific Reports 2016, 6, 19541
  • “Raman system for sensitive and selective identification of volatile organic compounds” Park K.J., Wu C., Mercer-Smith A.R., Dodson R.A., Moersch T.L., Koonath P., Pipino A.C.R., Lu H-W., Yang Y., Sapirstein V.S., Taylor C.J., Niemz, A. Sens. Actuators B Chem. 2015, 220, 491–499
  • “Disposable Miniature Check Valve Design Suitable for Scalable Manufacturing” Hickerson, A.I.; Lu, H.W.; Roskos, K.; Carrey, T.; Niemz, A. Sens. Actuators A 2013, 203, 76–81
  • “DNA Adsorption to and Elution from Silica Surfaces: Influence of Amino Acid Buffers” Vandeventer, P.E., Mejia, J., Nadim, A, Johal, M.S., Niemz, A. J Phys Chem B. 2013, 117, 10742−10749
  • “Simple System for Isothermal DNA Amplification Coupled to Lateral Flow Detection” Roskos, K.; Hickerson, A.I.; Lu, H.W.; Ferguson, T.M.; Niemz, A. PLoS ONE 2013, 8, e69355
  • “Nucleic acid testing for tuberculosis at the point-of-care in high burden countries” Niemz, A.; Boyle, D.S. Exp. Rev. Mol. Diag. 2012, 12, 687-701
  • “Multiphasic DNA Adsorption to Silica Surfaces under Varying Buffer, pH, and Ionic Strength Conditions.” Vandeventer, P.E.; Lin, J.S.; Zwang, T.J.; Nadim, A.; Johal, M.S.; Niemz, A. Journal of Physical Chemistry B 2012, 116, 5661-5670
  • “Sequence dependence of isothermal DNA amplification via EXPAR” Qian, J.; Ferguson, T.M.; Shinde, D.N.; Ramirez-Borrero, A.J.; Hintze, A.; Adami, C.; Niemz, A. Nucleic Acids Res. 2012, 40, e87
  • “Mechanical Disruption of Lysis-Resistant Bacteria using a Miniature, Low Power, Disposable Device” Vandeventer, P.E.; Weigel, K.M.; Salazar, J.; Erwin, B.; Irvine, B.; Doebler, R.; Nadim, A.; Cangelosi, G.A.; Niemz, A. J.Clin.Microbiol. 2011, 49, 2533-2539

Dr. Niemz has been involved in translational research for infectious disease diagnosis at the point of care, with focus on sexually transmitted diseases (Chlamydia, Gonorrhea), arboviral infections (Dengue), and Tuberculosis. Her research group developed fully integrated sample to answer platforms for near patient infectious disease diagnosis via nucleic acid testing, based on isothermal amplification with lateral flow detection. In that context she also developed and optimized nucleic acid sample preparation and isothermal amplification methods. Other projects involved developing Raman sensors to identify volatile organic compound biomarkers for infectious disease diagnosis. Her prior research focused on nano-scale self-assembly, bio-molecular recognition, molecular devices, and electronic sensors.