Faculty Profiles

Colleges and Departments

Dr. Shannon E Weigum

  • Associate Professor - Biology
Portrait of Dr. Shannon E Weigum

Biography and education

Dr. Weigum is an interdisciplinary scientist and researcher focused upon the development of optical biosensors and microfluidic devices that can detect and diagnose disease at the point-of-care. Dr. Weigum is currently an Associate Professor in Biology and core faculty for the Materials Science, Engineering and Commercialization Program at Texas State University. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Texas A&M University, a master’s degree from Texas State, and a doctoral degree in Biochemistry from the University of Texas at Austin. She was a postdoctoral fellow in Biomedical Engineering at Rice University before joining the Texas State faculty in 2011. Dr. Weigum has published numerous peer-reviewed manuscripts and poster abstracts, four book chapters, and holds two US patents. Her work has been featured nationally in Popular Science, CNET news and on the cover of the journal Lab-on-a-Chip.

Research Interests

  • Weigum, Shannon E (Co-Principal). Aptamer Beacons for Manual and Remote Automated Microbial Detection, NASA SBIR Phase I; Nanohmics, Federal, $149988. (Funded: July 1, 2019 - January 31, 2020). Grant.
  • Weigum, Shannon E. Aptamer-Guided Antibiotic-Loaded Exosomes for Improved Treatment of Bacterial Wound Infections, Nanhomics/Defense Health Agency, Federal, $75000. (Funded: March 1, 2024 - August 30, 2024). Grant.
  • Weigum, Shannon E (Principal). Detecting SARS-CoV-2 in Wastewater Using Molecular Buoys: A New Approach, Texas State University, Institutional (Higher Ed), $5628. (Submitted: October 13, 2020, Funded: January 15, 2021 - December 30, 2022). Grant.
  • Wistey, Mark A, Percent Contribution: %12.5, Chen, Yihong (Co-Principal), Percent Contribution: %12.5, Weigum, Shannon E, Percent Contribution: %12.5, Benavides, Elizabeth Ashley, Percent Contribution: %12.5, Ngu, Hee Hiong, Percent Contribution: %12.5, Irvin, Jennifer A, Percent Contribution: %12.5, Betancourt, Tania, Percent Contribution: %12.5, Holtz, Mark W, Percent Contribution: %12.5. FEES and Machine Learning for Diagnostics, Texas State University, Texas State University, $10000. (Funded: March 2019 - March 2020). Grant.
  • Weigum, Shannon E (Principal). Targeting Liver Cancer with a Nucleic Acid Aptamer, Texas State University Research Enhancement Program (REP), Texas State University, $8000. (Submitted: October 1, 2016, Funded: January 15, 2017 - December 30, 2017). Grant.
View all grants
  • Weigum, S. E., & Rohde, R. E. (2021). Nucleic Acid-Based Analytic Methods for Microbial Identification and Characterization. In Bailey & Scott’s Diagnostic Microbiology. St. Louis, Missouri: Elsevier Inc.
  • Weigum, S. E., & Rohde, R. E. (2021). Overview of the Methods and Strategies in Virology. In Bailey & Scott’s Diagnostic Microbiology. St. Louis, Missouri: Elsevier Inc.
  • Weigum, S. E., Xiang, L., Osta, E., Li, A. L., & López, G. (2016). Hollow silica microspheres for buoyancy-assisted separation of infectious pathogens from stool. Journal of Chromatography A, 1466, 29–36. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chroma.2016.09.002
  • Xiang, L., Wang, Z., Liu, Z., Weigum, S. E., Yu, Q., & Chen, M. Y. (2016). Inkjet Printed Flexible Biosensor Based on Graphene Field Effect Transistor. IEEE Sensors Journal, 16, 8359–8364. https://doi.org/10.1109/jsen.2016.2608719
  • Weigum, S. E., Sutton, M., Barnes, E., Miller, S., & Betancourt, T. (2014). Targeting hepatocellular carcinoma with aptamer-functionalized PLGA/PLA-PEG nanoparticles. In Proc. SPIE. 9166, Biosensing and Nanomedicine IV (Vol. 9166, p. 916605). SPIE. https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2062283
View all scholarly/creative works
  • Award / Honor Nominee: Presidential Award for Service, Texas State University. March 2021
  • Award / Honor Recipient: Presidential Award for Service in College of Science and Engineering, Texas State University. August 2021
  • Award / Honor Recipient: Favorite Professor, Alfred H. Nolle Chapter of the Alpha Chi National College Honor Society. 2016
  • Award / Honor Recipient: Named in at least one student survey as a faculty member that they felt contributed significantly to their success and development throughout their first semester on campus, Texas State University. 2016
  • Award / Honor Recipient: Favorite Professor, Alfred H. Nolle Chapter of the Alpha Chi National College Honor Society. 2015
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  1. Chair

    GSMP Vision 2025 Initiative - Incubator and Accelerator Project

  2. Member

    Education Workforce Council

  3. Member

    Texas Global Health Security Consortium Steering Committee

  4. Organizer

    One Million Cups

  5. Member

    Greater San Marcos Partnership Vision 2025 Steering Committee

  6. Reviewer / Referee

    PLOS One

  7. View all activities