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...
Jul25
Posted on Jul 25 by
Summer research is almost done (even though it feels like it just started)! Juan is currently conducting his last experiments of the summer, working on his distinction in the field proposal, and the state of the project write-up. This summer has been so busy, and much has been done! Atomic force microscopy (AFM) has been used to image multiple samples, the usage of fluorescence to detect calcium has been explored and multiple fluorophores are used, experiments involving the fluorescence microscope have been tested, and the amount of collagen on the surface of the quartz crystal was calculated. With summer research coming to a close, Juan can’t wait for the first semester of his senior year to...
Jul16
Posted on Jul 16 by
A new part of Marissa’s research involves using a liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (LC-MS) instrument. Not only is she looking for the detection of her ligands at concentrations in the micromolar range, but also for the concentration of them within her samples. As the summer progresses, she has been trying to quantify the number of ligands on her gold nanoparticles, and hopefully reach her mineralization experiments. She is also looking forward to attending the Clare Boothe Luce Program Women in STEM Conference that is taking place in a few weeks in...
Jun26
Posted on Jun 26 by
After a chaotic spring semester, Dennis is excited to join GRAB Lab as a part-timer! This will be his first (and last) summer in the lab, and it is already half-way done. He will be carrying on Donalissa’s work with nanoparticles and DNA aptamers. The progress was overall smooth sailing, but it all changed when the plate reader software decided to expire right before his mineralization experiment! It is not fully a bad thing since it will give him more time for his side project of synthesizing bigger nanoparticles and perfecting well plate preparation. Other than that, he has enjoyed his time in the lab so far, learning how to use various instruments, techniques, and experimental protocols. Outside of the lab, Dennis has been exploring what food Boston has to offer during his lunch break and fighting his way through the T or...
