Rachel E. Ham
Papers
2
Total Citations
23
H-Index
2
About
Rachel E. Ham is a researcher at the forefront of public health diagnostics and biomedical engineering, with a focused expertise in developing scalable, open-source solutions for infectious disease detection. Her major contribution lies in pioneering a cost-effective, high-throughput SARS-CoV-2 diagnostic strategy that leverages open-source pipetting robots for quantitative reverse transcriptase PCR (RT-qPCR) analysis of saliva samples. This work directly addressed critical bottlenecks during the COVID-19 pandemic, enabling rapid, accurate, and accessible testing in close-contact settings without reliance on proprietary, expensive equipment. Her most-cited paper, published in 2022, has garnered 16 citations, reflecting its immediate relevance to global health crises and its role in democratizing molecular diagnostics. By integrating automation with open-source hardware, Ham’s research not only enhanced epidemiological surveillance but also provided a blueprint for future pandemic preparedness. Her achievements underscore a commitment to translational science, bridging engineering and public health to create practical tools that empower laboratories worldwide.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
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