Bringing you the latest news from the Gerdon Research Group
Our very own Georgia Kazis ’27 was recently featured in the Summer Research Series at Emmanuel College. Check out what Georgia and Dr. Gerdon have to say about summer research on campus and about our awesome discoveries! https://www.emmanuel.edu/pulse/news/summer-research-series-dna-origami...
With summer in full swing, Georgia has jumped back into research. She is currently exploring different methods to image her grids before they are sent off for TEM analysis. She’s particularly excited to be working with the fluorescence microscope again and appreciates the flexibility of her summer schedule, which allows her the time to do more time-intensive types of analysis. With the end of this phase of the project in sight, Georgia is eager to make significant progress over the coming...
The weather doesn’t quite feel like summer yet in Boston, but research is heating up in the Wilkens Science Center! We have a great new group with Georgia Kazis ’27 in the lead as a return researcher and Lana Dang ’27 and Ann-Lee Coriolan ’28 as new GRAB Lab members. Ellie Vanhille ’26 and Donald Ulwick ’26 are joining remotely to share some of their work over the summer as well. We’re planning on some joint meetings with Dr. Nathan Lau’s group and will try to get to know all the researchers in the building. Our main areas of focus this summer include finishing up DNA origami mineralization, collagen mineralization on QCM, and gold nanoparticle-DNA aptamer conjugation experiments. This is a great group and they are going to stay...
Dr. Gerdon’s been hanging out in the Emmanuel College Discovery Lab to craft up some great gear for the seniors! Who needs a beaker mug? Every chemist! Who needs a beaker mug with the GRAB Lab logo? These amazing graduating...
There’s just so much to say about the Seniors! Graduation is just a few steps away, but we’ve been over-busy for the past month finishing up experiments, preparing for final presentations, and passing on knowledge to new researchers. Congrats to… Dennis Nguyen ’25 for his amazing work with gold nanoparticles, size-selective synthesis, and aptamer attachment! Mia Mullen ’25 for her impressive work with formulations to make lipid nanoparticles “less sticky” – it worked! Marissa Diplacido ’25 for her engaging, fun, and funny Distinction in the Field talk on “Zwitterionic Ligand Gold Nanoparticle Synthesis Produces Biomimetic Templates to Control Calcium Phosphate Mineralization” Juan Alejandro ’25 for exceptional work as a QCM expert and Distinction in the Field talk on “Quartz crystal microbalance analysis of collagen mineralization demonstrates reaction kinetics, mass deposition, and hydrogel rigidity” On a beautiful spring day the group came together for a picture under the blooming trees of Emmanuel College, then retired to Time Out for ice cream and the sharing of wisdom. The seniors had great advice and encouragement for our researchers moving into the lab...
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...