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Lab News
The PANDA Lab (People-centered Approaches to Novel Diagnostics for All) is buzzing with activity—both here in Austin and across the globe. At UT Austin, we’re building out our core capabilities in molecular diagnostics and assay development, setting up new equipment, and welcoming a growing team of researchers and students.
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Across the U.S., we’re collaborating with clinicians and public health partners to develop and evaluate our technologies in real-world settings, from rural Texas to urban health centers. Internationally, we continue to expand our partnerships in South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria, and Thailand to co-develop tools that meet the needs of diverse communities.
Whether it's publishing new findings, piloting diagnostic tools in the field, or presenting at global conferences, the Panda Lab is working across borders and disciplines to make diagnostics smarter, faster, and more accessible.
Our Journey So Far
NEWS
THE PANDA LAB
04/28/25 Dr. Panpradist to meet with Thai Delegation to Strengthen Global Exchange
Dr. Nuttada Panpradist to welcome a delegation from Prince Royal's College in Thailand, coordinated by UT Austin’s Texas Global, as part of the Chiang Mai–Austin Sister Cities International (ASCI) Program. The visit aims to strengthen ongoing efforts to expand bilateral student exchange and study abroad opportunities between Chiang Mai and Austin, deepening global collaboration in education and cultural exchange.
04/09/25 PANDA Lab attends UT Austin–Sandia National Labs research partnership event
Dr. Panpradist, along with Asmit, Zijing, and Malavika from the Panda Lab, attended the UT Austin–Sandia National Laboratories Research Partnership event. The team looks forward to forging new ideas and collaborations with researchers at SNL in the near future.
03/29/25 ​Dr. Nuttada Panpradist served as one of the five judges at the 2025 Texas Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) Design Competition, which focused on designing solutions to improve health, accessibility, and mobility for college students with disabilities. The annual event at UT Austin encourages interdisciplinary collaboration among engineering students to develop practical biomedical solutions.
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Photo credit: Esha Shenoy
03/07/25 The PANDA Lab is growing.
We're thrilled to welcome our newest undergraduate researchers: Asmit Panda (BME), Esha Shenoy (BME), Mahir Patel (CS), Malavika (BME), Priyanka Sugumar (BME), Sriya Cheemala (BME), and Zijing Lian (Biochemistry). Excited for the energy and innovation they bring!
02/12/25 Dr. Zach Rengert joined the PANDA lab!
With 7 years of post-PhD industrial experience, including as CEO of two companies, he brings deep expertise in diagnostic innovation—most notably as a co-developer of the FDA EUA-approved eSensor® COVID-19 technology at GenMark Diagnostics in the Bay Area.
01/31/25 Dr. Panpradist joined the UT BME Belong Program as a faculty mentor.
Dr. Nuttada Panpradist became a faculty mentor for UT Austin Biomedical Engineering’s BELoNG program. BELoNG connects underclassmen with faculty and senior students to foster academic success and an inclusive engineering community.
01/23/25 Dr. Panpradist gave first talk at UT Austin BME
Dr. Nuttada Panpradist gave her first talk at UT Austin, hosted by Texas Engineering World Health (TEWH). Over 35 students attended, sparking lively discussions that continued well past the scheduled time.
01/01/25 Dr. Varunya Sakpuntoon (Dr. V) joined the PANDA lab!We’re excited to welcome Dr. Varunya Sakpuntoon to the Panda Lab at UT Austin! She brings expertise in bioinformatics, bioproduction, and sequencing to accelerate our diagnostic technology development.
01/01/25 PANDA Lab was established!
Panda Lab officially launched at UT Austin's Biomedical Engineering Department in 2025. We're developing next-gen diagnostics for global and local health challenges—stay tuned!
Prior to UT
11/15/23 The Union World Conference, Paris, France
Dr. Nuttada Panpradist presented an update on the recent development of the MDR-TB test at the Union conference under the conference theme "The Global AMR fight: preventing drug resistance". Abstract number 3395 - Development of low-cost oligonucleotide ligation assay and lateral flow test to detect multi-drug resistant tuberculosis.
11/11/23 Mistletoe Research Fellowship (MRF) by Momental Foundation
Dr. Nuttada Panpradist was one of the 2023 MRF recipients. This year 24 MRF recipients were selected from more than 300 applicants. Recipients will participate in the MRF Startup Collaboration workshop in Oakland from Dec 1st - 4th and receive the Unfettered Research Grant of $10,000.
11/09/23 Council of University Presidents of Thailand (CUPT) visit at UW
Supporting the UW Global Affairs (led by Vice Provost Gayle Gayle Christensen) and UW Office of Research (co-led by Associate Vice Provosts Sara Curran and Cecilia M Giachelli), Dr. Nuttada Panpradist co-organized the visit of 28 esteemed delegations from CUPT and gave a presentation on her program, "UW-Thailand Diagnostic 'Dx' Circle."
Photo credit: Dr. Barry Lutz, 2023.
10/20/23 GH Labs "Innovation and Impact" Series
Dr. Nuttada Panpradist was invited to present at the GH Lab in Bellevue. Her talk will focus on approaches to increase equity in biomedical research and decolonization using the journey of her recent work on repurposing the OLA-Simple platform to detect MDR-TB as an example.
10/11/23 - 10/14/23 BMES Domination in Seattle WA!
Dr. Nuttada Panpradist and team (Annika Sahota, Anastasia Kim, Inyoung Seo, Kyla Yamashita, Lesley Chan, Mathea Lorraine Caole, Megan van Meurs, Ria Sonigra, Samantha Nguyen, Stephen Macris, Xuanchang Hu) present at #BMES2023. Check our customized program by clicking the "link" icon on the left.
09/24/23 - 09/29/23 Faculty of Immunology, University of Pretoria, South Africa
Dr. Nuttada Panpradist visited the laboratory of Prof Theresa Rossouw. She demonstrated and trained medical students and researchers to perform an isothermal amplification assay to quantify HIV viral load.
09/26/23 Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Pretoria, South Africa
Dr. Nuttada Panpradist gave a lecture, organized by Prof. Mashamba-Thompson (Professor of Diagnostics Research and the current Deputy Dean of Research and Postgraduate Studies at the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Pretoria). Her lecture is titled: "Co-creating Innovations to Overcoming Barriers in Molecular Diagnostics In and Outside Labs."
09/22/23 HIV Drug Resistance and Treatment Strategy Workshop, South Africa
Dr. Nuttada Panpradist received "Promising Point-of-Care Technology" award based on her oral presentation.
09/20/23 HIV Drug Resistance and Treatment Strategy Workshop, South Africa
Dr. Nuttada Panpradist gave an oral presentation titled, "Diagnostic accuracy of a near point-of-care HIV drug resistance test OLA-Simple: A field validation study in Kenya"
Photo credit: Dr. Vinie Koamou (University of Zimbabwe)
09/12/23 - 09/14/23 Chiang Mai University, Thailand
Dr. Nuttada Panpradist, in collaboration with LUCENT International Collaboration, organized a capacity-building training program on “Academic Writing for NIH Proposal and Technology Transfer from Innovative Ideas to Commercialization"
09/05/23 Rice360 Institute for Global Health Technologies
Dr. Nuttada Panpradist was selected as the 2024 recipient of the Rice360 Innovation and Leadership in Global Health Award. This award will be presented at the annual International Undergraduate Global Health Technologies Design Competition, to be held this academic year at Rice University on April 12, 2024.
07/23/23 - 07/26/23 International Aids Society (IAS) Conference for HIV Science
Dr. Nuttada Panpradist presented at the IAS conference in Brisbane.
06/29/23 BBI Promising Young Scientist
Dr. Nuttada Panpradist was featured in Brotman Baty Institute's Promising Young Scientist series: "From Bangkok to Seattle, Nuttada Panpradist is a Profile in Courage"
06/27/23 UW Office of Global Affairs
Dr. Nuttada Panpradist was a recipient of the 2023 UW Global Innovation Fund. She will co-lead the development of the UW Thailand Dx circle with Dr. Wasser (CEFS) and Dr. Lutz (Bioengineer).
06/08/23 - 06/10/23 McGill Institute of Global Health
Dr. Nuttada Panpradist was invited to lecture at the 2023 antimicrobial resistance summer course. Her lecture was titled: Bringing new platforms to market: what can we learn from novel low-cost testing for HIV Resistance?
05/03/23 - 05/05/23 Juncker Lab Hands-on Workshop on 3D Printing and Microfluidics for Bioengineering
Dr. Nuttada Panpradist, Ana Kim, and Kyla Yamashita visited McGill University to participate in this workshop. Ana's team won the first prize in the organ-on-the-chip design challenge. Congrats Ana!
03/27/23 University of Utah, Global Health Surgery
Dr. Nuttada Panpradist gave an oral presentation titled "Overcoming barriers in molecular diagnostics in and outside labs through local capacity building and transnational, multidisciplinary collaborations."
02/03/23 - 02/10/23 1st Barbados THINK symposium on Diagnostics and Microfluidics
Dr. Nuttada Panpradist gave an oral presentation titled "Overcoming barriers in molecular diagnostics in and outside labs through local capacity building and transnational, multidisciplinary collaborations"
12/15/22 Associated Medical Sciences at Chiang Mai University
Dr. Nuttada Panpradist from University of Washington has accepted a position of
Faculty Lecturer (in-kind) at Faculty of Associated Medical Sciences at Chiang Mai University
12/06/22 UW Population Health Initiative announces award of five autumn quarter 2022 Tier 2 pilot research grants
12/06/17 UW BioE news Nuttada Panpradist presents OLA-SIMPLE HIV drug resistance test in South Africa
07/14/17 UW BioE news Nuttada Panpradist receives Graduate Discovery Fellowship
02/27/17 King5 news UW student wins coveted grant to develop HIV rapid test
10/13/16 UW BioE news Nuttada Panpradist wins $50,000 Third Place APF Student Technology Prize for Primary Healthcare
05/19/16 UW BioE news Wendy Thomas and Nuttada Panpradist receive 2016 UW Undergraduate Research Mentor Awards
06/01/15 UW BioE news 2015 BioE Awards Recipient Profiles: Suzie Pun, Nuttada Panpradist, Ted Chen and Colleen Irvin
08/13/14 UW Global WACh Global WACh & Coulter Foundation 2014 Pilot Award
09/17/24 Annual all-TRAC meeting
Dr. Nuttada Panpradist, as the recipient of the New Investigator Award by the Seattle Tuberculosis Research Advancement Center, will give her presentation at the annual Tuberculosis Research Advancement Center (all-TRAC).
06/13/24 Deshpande Symposium in College Town, Maryland
Dr. Nuttada Panpradist will join the panel session with Drs. Magali Eaton and Elizabeth Johnson (Montana State University), and Dr. Karl Mundorff (Oregon State University). We will share our perspectives as technology innovators. The symposium is sponsored by Deshpande foundation, Venturewell, and Mass University at Lowell.
Panelist
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Elizabeth Johnson, Montana State University, PhD, MS-CRM, RN
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Magali Eaton, Montana State University Technology Transfer Office, Technology Transfer Lead and Associate Director
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Karl Mundorff, Oregon State University
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Nuttada Panpradist, University of Washington-Seattle Campus, Postdoctoral Researcher
05/29/24 Fifth Biomedical Engineering Education Summit
Dr. Nuttada Panpradist will attend the Fifth Biomedical Engineering Education Summit hosted by the New Jersey Institute of Technology. The workshop aims to build diversity in the biomedical engineering workforce spanning academia to industry. It will bring bioengineering educators nationwide to discuss new teaching methods including AIs to promote inclusivity in the classroom.
04/12/24 Rice 360 Global Health Technologies Design Competition, Houston
Dr. Nuttada Panpradist served as a competition judge and a keynote speaker at the Rice 360 Global Health Technologies Design Competition at Rice University.
03/11/24 Hosting our visitor from Kenya at UW
Dr. Leonard Kingwara, from the Ministry of Health in Kenya, visited the UW Global WACh, UW Bioengineering, UW Computer Science, and UW Electrical and Computer Engineering.
03/08/24 Electrical and Computer Engineering at Rice University, Houston
Dr. Nuttada Panpradist gave a seminar presentation at the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at Rice University in Houston, Texas.
03/06/24 Biomedical Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin, Texas
Dr. Nuttada Panpradist gave a seminar presentation at the Biomedical Engineering Department at the University of Texas at Austin in Austin, Texas.
02/26/24 Electrical and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Vermont, Burlington
Dr. Nuttada Panpradist gave a seminar presentation at the Electrical and Biomedical Engineering Department at the University of Vermont in Burlington.
02/22/24 Bioengineering at Lehigh University, Pennsylvania
Dr. Nuttada Panpradist gave a seminar presentation at the Bioengineering Department at Lehigh University in the Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania
02/20/24 CoMotion article "Spark of Intention"
Dr. Nuttada Panpradist was featured alongside linguist Alicia Beckford Wassink and neuroscientist Varadaraya Shenoy. We shared our stories of confronting adversity and pioneering socially impactful technologies.
01/29/24 Biomedical Engineering at the University at Buffalo, New York
Dr. Nuttada Panpradist gave a seminar presentation at the Biomedical Engineering Department at University at Buffalo, New York
01/14/24 Nigeria Pediatric Infectious Disease Conference, Lagos, Nigeria
Dr. Nuttada Panpradist gave a presentation titled, "Overview of low-cost molecular diagnostics to address AMR in low resource settings, at the pre-conference meeting for the Nigerian Pediatric Infectious Disease Conference.
01/12/24 University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria
Dr. Nuttada Panpradist visited the hospital at the University of Ibadan to observe ongoing clinical practices and discuss potential collaborative projects on sepsis diagnostics.
01/05/24 University of Jos, Jos University Teaching Hospital (JUTH), Nigeria
Dr. Nuttada Panpradist joined Dr. Holly Rawizza from Harvard University to implement OLA-Simple HIV drug resistance kit at Dr. Imade Godwin's laboratory at JUTH.
12/04/23 Mistletoe Research Foundation Meeting in Oakland
Dr. Nuttada Panpradist joined the other 23 MRF fellows to attend the first meeting at the circuit launch.
12/16/22 Thrasher Research Fund
Dr. Nuttada Panpradist was awarded a 2022 Thrasher Early Career Award to support her proposal titled development of a point-of-care wearable device for congenital cytomegalovirus screening in newborns
12/05/22 Seattle Tuberculosis Research Advancement (SEATRAC)
Dr. Nuttada Panpradist received the New Investigator Award from SEATRAC on the proposal titled laboratory-developed assay for tuberculosis drug resistance detection in Kenya
12/05/22 UW/Fred Hutch CFAR 2022 New Investigator Award - Recipient Profiles
06/24/22 Youth Global Health Innovation Conference Invited Speaker
02/28/22 UW Daily UW opens new center for environmental forensic science
01/25/22 Q13Fox news UW researchers develop fast, highly-accurate COVID-19 test
06/21/21 UW BioE news BioE members win teaching, staff, student research awards
11/16/20 UW College of Engineering A culture of collaboration
08/28/19 North Seattle College Alumna Nuttada Panpradist '13, Biomedical Engineer & HIV Researcher
05/21/18 UW Foster blog Innovation Smorgasbord: seen, heard and tasted at the UW Business Plan Competition
06/01/18 UW BioE news A-Alpha Bio, Nanodropper, OLA Simple finish strong, win $32,500 at 2018 UW Business Plan Competition
03/02/18 GeekWire Student entrepreneurs tackle genetic testing, clinical trials at health startup competition
05/20/18 UW BioE news Robyn Langevin, Solomon Muche, Caleb Perez, Nuttada Panpradist and Ty Youngblood selected for Husky 100 Class of 2018
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