Nov04
Posted on Nov 4 by
The fall semester is so close to being over (only one month left) and yet so much research still needs to be done! Currently in lab, a dynamic solution procedure is being used to study how a dynamic environment would affect mineralization. Juan is using a syringe pump (aptly named LaLa by Jason Miech) to deliver around 1 mL of solution per hour to the instrument. There have been many bumps in the road with this project, but Juan has persevered. Like Dr. Gerdon says, “Nothing Daunts a Chemist!”. Other than research, Juan has been juggling coursework and classes, other work, and life. His senior year is almost halfway done, and distinction gradually...
Oct23
Posted on Oct 23 by
Dennis’ senior year has started, but there is still much to do in research! In the beginning, balancing schoolwork and lab work took some time to get used to. However, he has now set a weekly routine to focus on both! He is continuing his work on mineralizing with different-sized nanoparticles and has started attaching DNA to the larger ones. However, things are never as easy as they seem since it was found that the largest glutathione nanoparticle has stability issues. He is now trying to find new synthesis methods to improve the stability of larger nanoparticles for place exchanges with DNA. There are so many things to do before the ACS conference in the spring! Hopefully, he can achieve his goals by then. Happy Mole Day! 23 Oct =...
Oct16
Posted on Oct 16 by
Georgia just started sophomore year! She is is excited to begin research again after her August hiatus. Right now, she has pivoted back to trying to figure out the DNA origami melt experiments using the qPCR instrument. The goal here is to measure origami and array stability. She is trying a new technique where she purifies the 6HB and then makes the arrays. That would theoretically make sure there is no excess staples that would bind to linkers and make excess noise in the measurement. Results have varied right now but she does think its helping!! She is also going to try and improve imaging of DNA origami arrays in calcium buffer without mineralization to see if she can get images of pure arrays. She hopes it will go...
Oct04
Posted on Oct 4 by
The blissful joy of summer research feels like a distant past, but we took time to celebrate all that lab success at the Summer Research Poster Session on October 3rd. Congrats on Georgia, Marissa, Juan, and Dennis on awesome posters and a great poster session. We’re now a month into the Fall semester and the days are flying by as we stay busy with all the work of research. The first goal of the semester was to prepare posters for this poster session. The second goal came right behind as we wrote and submitted abstracts for the Spring ACS Meeting in San Diego! Congrats to all on the submissions. On top of that we have great new results rolling in with QCM, real-time PCR, place exchange, and nanoparticle synthesis. We’re going to keep up with this great momentum with more blog posts on the...
Jul31
Posted on Jul 31 by
This group of research students is undaunted, unphased, and untrappable – either by Boston escape rooms or by tricky experiments. Together as a team, we conquered the evil witch and conquered unruly experiments. Juan, Marissa, Dennis, and Georgia did amazing work in the lab this summer, collected a huge amount of data, made great progress on these projects, and had a lot of fun too. Sushi, a visit to the Boston Public Gardens, and an escape room make for a fun July afternoon. Students will present their State of the Project reports on Friday and take a short August break before the Fall...
Jul25
Posted on Jul 25 by
Georgia has been loving research! Her first summer has been going by really fast, but she has made some good progress. She has been imaging with AFM (atomic force microscopy) a lot and the instrument seems to like her more these past few days. She has also been working on her state of the project presentation. It has made her look back on all of her previous experiments and made her realize how much she has done. Although summer is almost over, she is excited to have a little break before the academic year starts up again. She’s excited to present what she has done this summer, and to plan for what comes...