Jul06
Posted on Jul 6 by
This summer it has been great to reconnect with GRAB Lab alumni and to hear about amazing work that’s happening all over the country. Soon we will get to gather to share old and new stories in person, but here are a few updates from those unable to make it to Boston next week! Congrats to Rylie, Dianna, Amanda, Luz, and Grace on graduation! All are off to amazing new adventures in chemistry. Dr. Juliann Gavin ’16 is in Hawaii, starting the 3rd year of her OBGYN residency at the Tripler Army Medical Center. Juliann is the first from the group to get her MD! Jason Miech ’18 just finished his third year at Arizona State towards his PhD. Check out these two recent papers (10.3390/toxics9110281 10.1016/j.aeaoa.2021.100105)! Dr. Aimee Sanford ’16 defended her PhD from Emory University in December and is now on the west coast at Nautilus Biotech. Dr. Keith Baillargeon ’16 defended his PhD from Tufts University in October and is cranking out the publications as a post-doc. Gabby Zabala ’21 started a new position as Scientist I...
Jul06
Posted on Jul 6 by
We are very excited to have Camilla Alexius-Chin, an amazing high school chemistry teacher in the Boston Public School System, join the GRAB Lab this summer. Camilla is joining our National Science Foundation (NSF) funded project on DNA and nanoparticle assemblies as biomimetic templates for calcium phosphate mineralization. She is off to a great start getting to know the team, learning about our research projects, planning her own experiments, and thinking about the connection or transition between high school and college level chemistry that students make. She is also inspiring the research team and helping with troublesome experiments in the group. Keep an eye out for Camilla’s video introduction coming...
Jun29
Posted on Jun 29 by
Thanks to the pioneering spirit of GRAB Lab researcher Kristy Ta, we are moving into the age of video communication! I know, we’re probably a bit behind the game on this, but Kristy deserves a huge thanks for bringing this great idea forward. Now we’re expanding our social media presence and doing an even better job of sharing our accomplishments, challenges, frustrations, and victories in the experience that is chemistry research. Don’t worry, the blog will stay put, but you can also find us @ECGrabLab on Twitter, Instagram, and now TikTok! https://www.tiktok.com/@ecgrablab...
Jun29
Posted on Jun 29 by
Julia has made a lot of progress this summer in terms of her mineralization experiments! She has even made her own oven/water bath for these experiments to control the temperature in the QCM (quartz crystal microbalance)! She is having a blast working on this project, getting to know the other group members, and exploring different food options nearby Emmanuel College. She is very excited to continue working towards the goal of determining the kinetics of collagen...
Jun23
Posted on Jun 23 by
Kristy is having the best time in GRAB Lab for summer research – from starting 7-day mineralization experiments, to starting side projects as Chem Club President, and building the team’s social media presence! She has learned that sometimes experiments don’t go as planned but there’s no shame in restarting and seeing the experiment in a new perspective. Kristy has been having fun exploring Boston in her free time! She has finally been able to explore Boston Commons, the Public Garden and sitting by the Charles Rivers to soak in the sun while reading a book! Summer research has given her many opportunities and a chance to make some new friends and...
Jun21
Posted on Jun 21 by
Hailey is very excited to be doing her first summer of research with the GRAB lab and can’t wait to see what she accomplishes! Her plans for the summer involve assembling DNA origami rectangles for use in mineralization. (And she will be doing a lot of gel electrophoresis in the process.) She is currently working on attaching DNA aptamers to her origami and hopes to start preparing for mineralization soon! She’s already having a great time with research and looks forward to the rest of the summer! (Historical note. Hailey benefited greatly from the agarose gel electrophoresis protocol that Keith Baillargeon typed up many years ago. We’re now looking closely at the very thorough mineralization protocol that Jake Shlaferman put together a bit more recently. Thank you for being...
