Summer research is a magical time in the lab for Dr. Gerdon and research students. The stress of the semester starts to fade away and there’s finally enough time to take a deep breath, focus your attention to research, and let your mind wander towards new ideas. Summer research is a time to put your head down and power through a big list of experiments and...
Read MoreStephanie Colon ’20 – Summer Research Has Begun
Now that the 2018-2019 school year has come to an end, summer research has begun! Alex and Stephanie are working on optimizing the conditions for their calcium carbonate experiments. Stephanie, specifically, has been working on choosing between optical density and absorbance as a way of measuring the kinetics of calcium carbonate mineralization and how DNA...
Read MoreSpring Distractions
The end of the semester is upon us and that has brought so many distractions from research and from regular blog posts. This is rightfully so, of course, because classes must come first! Still, the group was able to get together to celebrate the end of this academic year with a group picture and a trip to Tasty Burger. Thanks for a great semester of...
Read MoreMarielle Percuoco ’19 – Gelation
Marielle has been working hard this semester trying to adhere collagen hydrogels onto gold surfaces. Last week’s attempted experiment left her puzzled as there was no gelation of the collagen solution on the gold plate. This week, Marielle revised the experiment adding a positive control and another method for dropping the collagen solution onto the...
Read MoreEmma Duffy ’19 – Problems arise and are then solved
As Emma continues with the affinity project at the tail end of her senior year, she is reminded of one of the first lessons learned in research. There is no such thing as a failed experiment. Emma is now trying to further explore the selectivity of the DNA aptamers by running mineralization experiments for set amounts of time. The mineral produced in those...
Read MoreJake Shlaferman ’19 – Back to Circular Dichroism
As his days of undergrad are coming to an end, Jake is working on side-projects related to his previous work. He is analyzing the secondary structure of the G-quadruplex that forms in the DNA aptamers in the presence of different cations. Based on literature and previous results, he hopes to find some trends that correspond to the mechanism that will be...
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