With just one slide and three minutes, fourth-year graduate student Erin Keblish described how she is developing a carbon nanotube-based sensor that could act like a “smoke detector” for early signs of deadly sepsis, during Weill Cornell Medicine’s ninth annual Three-Minute Thesis (3MT®) competition on November 13.
Keblish, who is a graduate student in physiology, biophysics and systems biology, explained how the excess production of inflammatory molecules called cytokines in response to an infection can trigger a life-threatening complication called sepsis. She noted that clinicians can successfully treat the condition if caught early.