Posted by on Apr 7, 2024 in Alumni, Posts, Student News

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 work.