Apr01
Posted on Apr 1 by
Congratulations to the entire GRAB Lab team on a very successful, enlightening, and inspiring trip to San Diego for the ACS National Conference. The impressive amount of chemistry can be overwhelming at times but this group of undergraduate researchers did an amazing job sharing their hard work with the chemistry community and the world. We made some fantastic connections and got some great new ideas. These students are professionals who are learning and contributing all at the same time. We also enjoyed the sunshine, cherry blossoms, botanical gardens, tacos, more tacos, and more chemistry. Congrats to these researchers and their awesome presentations: Juan Alejandro ’25 – Quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) analysis of collagen mineralization demonstrates reaction kinetics, mass deposition, and hydrogel rigidity Marissa Diplacido ’25 – Zwitterionic Ligand Gold Nanoparticle Synthesis Produce Biomimetic Templates to Control Calcium Phosphate Mineralization (you had me at “zwitterion”…) Dennis Nguyen ’25 – Mineralization of Calcium Phosphate with Different-Sized and Aptamer-Attached Gold Nanoparticles Georgia Kazis ’27 – Assembly and analysis of DNA origami arrays as biomimetic scaffolds for calcium phosphate mineralization Dr. Gerdon joined the...
Apr01
Posted on Apr 1 by
After returning from spring break, Marissa finished up the poster she is presenting at the ACS Conference in San Diego. She also wrapped up her final mineralization experiment on her current place exchanged nanoparticles so she can shift her complete focus into completing her Distinction in the Field paper and presentation. As graduation approaches, she has started the job search and planning for what comes when she unfortunately departs from GRAB Lab. She is hopeful that she will find employment somewhere exciting! As she reminisces on her research, she is excited for what the future holds beyond her undergraduate...
Mar11
Posted on Mar 11 by
Dr. Gerdon had a great day at Pittcon Conference + Exposition in Boston last week! Thanks to Dr. Michelle Kovarik for the invitation to present in the Future of Analytical Chemistry Education session. It was great to share our work at Emmanuel College (Boston) on social justice in the chemistry...
Mar11
Posted on Mar 11 by
After making it through half the spring semester, Mia is making progress with her research. The lipid nanoparticle powder proved to be difficult to work with at first, but after identifying the usefulness of sucrose, the process is slowly coming along. Originally the pure and dry lipid nanoparticles were too sticky and did not grind well into a powder. Upon the addition of sucrose before the freezing and drying process, the powder became finer and more crystalline allowing for a more identifiable fingerprint under fluorescence. Mia hopes that she will find the ideal amount of sucrose to be added to the lipid nanoparticles for effective and clear application to fingerprints. With the end of the spring semester quickly approaching, Mia looks forward to job searching and hopefully securing a job soon after...
Mar11
Posted on Mar 11 by
The spring semester is moving fast (faster than expected). Exams are unfortunately beginning, ACS is just around the corner, graduation is approaching, and research is coming along very slowly. Juan has made many changes to the QCM Y-junction set-up, and a pause has been placed on dynamic experiments. Currently, the flow-cell chamber has been removed to mimic static experiment conditions, and control mineralization experiments with this flow-cell have been conducted. Hopefully, a mass increase will be seen (fingers...
Feb11
Posted on Feb 11 by
After a super busy Holiday season, Dennis is back and ready for a busy research semester! The ACS Conference is inching closer, but there are still lots of things he wants to do to add to his poster. He is getting back to calcium phosphate mineralization experiments after a break from that to focus on synthesizing stable and larger nanoparticles. The mineralization kinetics of these new nanoparticles with a tiopronin coating will be compared to the nanoparticles with a glutathione coating. Outside of research, graduation is approaching, and the job search is an interesting process to say the least. Overall, he is excited to see how the experiments and the semester will turn...
