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Analytical and Biomaterials Undergraduate Chemistry Research

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Feb11

Dennis Nguyen ’25 – inching closer

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...

Feb04

Georgia Kazis ’27 – Floating Science

Posted on Feb 4 by

The beginning of spring semester has begun! Georgia has a packed semester but is also excited to get back into research after the break. She is trying a new method for visualizing her DNA arrays that involves floating a TEM (transmission electron microscopy) grid on solution in a PCR (polymerase chain reaction) tube that contains her reactants. She is hopeful that it will work out! Spring semester also means summer is one semester closer, and although she is sad to see the seniors graduate, she is also excited to meet the new student researchers joining the...

Jan28

Welcome to 2025 and a new Spring Semester!

Posted on Jan 28 by

This post is a bit overdue, but Happy New Year and welcome to research in our Spring 2025 semester. Group meetings started back up last week and we have an amazing group of researchers – Marissa, Dennis, Juan, Mia, and Georgia – moving forward in the lab this semester. We also have lots of interest from first, second, and third year students looking to jump into research. While it is sad to say that the seniors will be leaving us at the end of this semester through graduation and commencement, we’ll have new researchers learning the ropes soon. We also have a very busy and exciting semester before us that includes a trip to San Diego for the Spring ACS Conference (5 of us from the group are going and many more from the department), Distinction in the Field presentations for Juan and Marissa at the end of the semester, plans for summer research already in the works, and the Notre Dame Cristo Rey science fair projects that some of us will be helping to judge. Oh, not to...

Dec09

Happy Hippo Holiday from the GRAB Lab!

Posted on Dec 9 by

Congrats to Juan, Marissa, Georgia, and Dennis on an awesome semester of research. We had amazing achievements and we have even bigger goals for the Spring, including a successful ACS conference, DITF, graduation, and more. We’re excited that Noah and Mia also got into the lab for some awesome experiments and that lots of new students are thinking about and exploring opportunities in research. We had a lot of new results this semester and we’re going to keep building on that. Now, it’s time to rock some final exams! Also, Hippos are great for the...

Nov20

High School Chemists from Notre Dame Cristo Rey visit Emmanuel College

Posted on Nov 20 by

It was amazing to welcome 60 high school chemistry students, along with GRAB Lab alum Dr. Gian Grant, to the Emmanuel College campus today. The students were here to work on their own research projects by making use of the EC Library resources. Diane Zydlewski in the Library walked them through journal article resources and citation styles. The campus tour with Admissions was fantastic on a beautiful fall day and lunch in the cafeteria was delicious as always. We ended the day with a lab tour and a chat with Chemistry faculty and students about lab work, research projects, presentation styles, and the wide-open topic of “what’s College like”? Huge thanks to all of those who helped make this awesome visit happen today, including GRAB Lab students Juan and...

Nov18

Marissa Diplacido ’25 – More and more nanoparticles

Posted on Nov 18 by

As the Fall semester is nearing its end, Marissa has once again been synthesizing more gold nanoparticles, trying new variations of place exchange reactions, purifying, and characterizing her samples. She has found that performing some place exchange reactions have potential to produce what she has been hoping for in her research. She is excited for the ACS Conference in the new year and continuing with her nanoparticles. As she continues her senior year and her academics, she is looking to the future for Distinction in the Field presentation and...