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Analytical and Biomaterials Undergraduate Chemistry Research

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Jul07

Congratulations to Dr. Vasconcellos!

Posted on Jul 7 by

The GRAB Lab and Dr. Gerdon would like to say a huge congratulations to Dr. Kayla Vasconcellos, D.M.D.! Kayla graduated summa cum laude from Tufts University School of Dental Medicine this year and is now a general practice resident at the Weill Cornell Campus of New York Presbyterian Hospital. Kayla has come a long way from nanoparticle synthesis, taking NMRs, and running mineralization experiments. Her work in the lab is still amazing and we took a look at her publication in group meeting today. Congrats Dr....

May18

Spring “Gathering” and Congratulations Seniors

Posted on May 18 by

A historic semester has come to a close! We are very proud of all the hard work that students did in a remote setting in the second half of the semester. That did put a damper on research progress, but we have been able to stay in touch as a research group and help each other along the way. We will pick things back up this summer and fall as soon as allowed. We will miss our senior researchers and want to say a very big thank you to Steph, Alex, and Kassidy for all of their hard work in research. They’ve moved the calcium carbonate and collage research forward tremendously. The three graduates have now joined an elite group of GRAB Lab research alumni! Congratulations Class of...

Apr21

Scientist Without a Lab?

Posted on Apr 21 by

What does a scientist without a lab do? Undergraduate researchers at Emmanuel College are no different than any other chemist out there. We miss the lab! This can be difficult to deal with, for sure. Here’s some great advice from Dr. Zoe Ayres: https://twitter.com/ZJAyres/status/1242088285217972225/photo/1 So, we stay connected with an occasional Zoom group meeting, work on writing up methods sections, plan for future experiments for when we’re back in the lab, and read some of that literature that’s been stacking up. It is not the same as lab time, but we will get through this together! Thank you to the GRAB Lab for being such a great team....

Mar21

Publication! Students publish in analytical chemistry journal

Posted on Mar 21 by

Congratulations to undergraduate students and chemistry alumni on their recent article published in Analytica Chimica Acta titled “Selected DNA aptamers as hydroxyapatite affinity reagents“. This work has been a long time in the making beginning with the origins of our SELEX work by Hillary Butts and Samantha Watson. This particular selection was initiated by Jack Florek, carried forward by Emma Duffy, and validated by Stephanie Colon – all authors on the paper. It is a true “bright spot” (because of fluorescence) for the GRAB Lab and for Emmanuel College. This work was supported by Emmanuel College and by the National Science Foundation, Division of Materials Research (DMR...

Mar05

Gabby Zabala ’21 – QCM Questions

Posted on Mar 5 by

Gabby has made her way into the lab this semester! She became involved in Dr. Gerdon’s research team last semester and has finally started working on some QCM analysis. So far Gabby has measured the change in frequency compared to the change in resistance for several QCM crystals in a non-mass loading system. Once this initial experiment is done, Gabby will be moving on to some experiments that will involve mass loading which will require the analysis from this initial experiment. Gabby is looking forward to the rest of the semester and everything the lab has in store for her and the research...

Mar05

Rylie Bolarinho ’22 – New Nanoparticles!

Posted on Mar 5 by

Rylie is very excited to start working in the lab this semester! In the fall, Rylie joined Dr. Gerdon’s research group after reading several literature papers and coming to group meetings. Now, she is working on gold nanoparticle synthesis using a new molecule, 3-mercaptobenzoic acid, as the organic group. Using the Azubel method, she hopes to be able to select for uniform nanoparticles of different sizes and eventually helping to build a library of nanoparticles. Rylie is looking forward to starting the research process and learning more about nanoparticle synthesis this...