October 11, 2023 Yesilkoy’s research on machine-learning-aided biosensor lands journal cover Written By: Tom Ziemer Departments: Biomedical Engineering Categories: Research A research paper from the lab of Filiz Yesilkoy, an assistant professor of biomedical engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, garnered the cover image on the September 2023 issue of the journal Sensors & Diagnostics. In the paper, lead authors Aidana Beisenova and Wihan Adi, both PhD students in Yesilkoy’s lab, describe advances that build upon the group’s previous work on a biosensor that yields more detailed results about COVID-19 antibodies from blood samples compared to currently used serology tests. Working with collaborators in the UW-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health and computer science and data science major Monniiesh Velmurugan, an undergraduate research assistant, the team used a machine learning model to sharpen the biosensor to detect vaccination and past infection status from blood samples. When tested on blind samples from Dane County, the sensor’s data lined up with publicly available data from the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, validating the approach. The technology could help public health officials better manage future infectious disease outbreaks. Sensors & Diagnostics is published by the Royal Society of Chemistry.