Apr07
Posted on Apr 7 by
Congratulations to the whole group and particularly to Kassidy, Kristy, Amanda, and Marielle on their new publication, “Equilibrium interactions of biomimetic DNA aptamers produce intrafibrillar calcium phosphate mineralization of collagen” in Acta Biomaterialia! This has been a work in progress for a long while and is our first foray into collagen hydrogels, intrafibrillar mineralization, the PILP mechanism, and bone-like materials. This is a huge step for us! Thank you to Laurie Gower (U Florida) for providing some protocols and insight to get us on our way with. this. Marielle really began the whole project by being the first student to create collagen hydrogels on campus. Kassidy did the experiments that first showed the impact of DNA aptamers on collagen mineralization. Kristy and Amanda got into the chemistry behind it all to show affinity and uptake of chemical precursors to try to explain what is really happening. This was a great group effort and is something we can build on! Thank you to Emmanuel College and the National Science Foundation (DMR 1904460) for funding of this...
Apr07
Posted on Apr 7 by
With spring in the air and the end of the semester right around the corner, Sydney has been reminiscing about her work in synthesizing fluorescent solid-lipid nanoparticles. As she condenses and packs up her past experiments, she has been looking back at all the skills that GRAB lab has taught her. While she’s not eager to leave GRAB lab after only one year on the team, Sydney is excited to put her new skills to use as a chemist in the work...
Mar19
Posted on Mar 19 by
The entire group did an amazing job sharing our work with the chemistry research community at the American Chemical Society conference in New Orleans! We contributed to our chemistry community, learned a lot from other researchers, and were a little overwhelmed by hanging with so many chemists at the same time. These are our people! Congrats to Hailey, Kristy, Donalissa, Juan, and...
Mar19
Posted on Mar 19 by
On Saturday, the GRAB Lab arrived in NOLA! As it was the day before St. Patrick’s Day, the French Quarter was a pretty wild scene but we were able to safely see some sights, eat some beignets, and hear some great...
Feb28
Posted on Feb 28 by
Donalissa has been keeping herself busy by preparing for the upcoming ACS conference (National Meeting of the American Chemical Society!) in March. After hours of creating graphs and designing schemes, she can finally see her poster coming together. Although Donalissa has enjoyed working on her poster, she is eager to get back in the lab and begin running more experiments. In the upcoming weeks, she has plans for more mineralization experiments as well as TEM (transmission electron microscopy) analysis. She is excited for her final semester and has plans to make the most of her research experience as it approaches its...
Feb21
Posted on Feb 21 by
Snow Day? Snow problem! After a not-so-snowy snow day last Tuesday, Hailey’s back in the lab running experiments for the week! She’s finishing up her work with DNA origami by testing different concentrations and types of cations in her annealing buffer to see how they interact with both the origami and the mineralization process. She’s excited to be in her final semester at Emmanuel, but it’s not over just yet! She and the GRAB Lab are getting ready for the ACS conference in March, and then she’ll be putting together her distinction in the field presentation! She’s made so many amazing memories with the GRAB Lab over the past few years, and is ready to make even more this...
