Bringing you the latest news from the Gerdon Research Group
Jake, Emma, Alex, and Dr. Gerdon all had a great time being fully immersed in chemistry at National Meeting of the American Chemical Society in Boston this week. Jake and Emma presented beautiful work and had good traffic at their posters. Alex had his eyes opened to the wide world of agricultural chemistry! Dr. Gerdon’s presentation on the Analytical Chemistry project with the Muddy River drew a lot of interest from the Citizen’s First educators. Congrats on a great...
The 256th Meeting of the American Chemical Society is just around the corner – in time and in space! Dr. Gerdon will be “traveling” with Emma, Jake, and Alex to the conference this weekend through Tuesday. It’s great to have such wonderful science from all over the world in your backyard! If you’re in town for the conference, stop by the CHED poster session Monday 2-4 pm for Emma Duffy – “DNA Aptamers that Selectively Bind to Hydroxyapatite” Jake Shlaferman – “Calcium phosphate supersaturation ratios alter DNA-templated mineralization in solution” It would be great to gather any Emmanuel alumni at the...
Dr. Gerdon had a fantastic week in New Hampshire, totally immersed in all things biomineralization, at the recent Gordon Research Conference. Dr. Gerdon presented a poster on “Analysis of secondary structures in DNA aptamer mineralization templates” and was able to consult with many experts in the field. He also successfully completed a rainy and treacherous hike up Mt. Kearsarge with like-minded...
Katarina, Alex, Sam, Emma, and Jake have been hard at work in the research lab all summer and now finally get a short break before the new semester starts in September. To conclude their hard work, each student presented their “State of the Project” report in order to put their project into perspective of previous work, to report on exciting new results from the summer, and to plan for work to come in the fall. Congrats to each on excellent work and excellent presentations! Presentation titles are given below and recaps of each project will be presented at Emmanuel College this fall semester at the summer research poster session. Katarina: “Using Stripping Voltammetry for Rapid Diagnostics Tests for Malaria” Alex: “Effects of Selected DNA Aptamers on the Morphology and Crystallinity of Hydroxyapatite” Sam: “Developing a mechanism for calcium carbonate mineralization in coral polyps using microfluidics” Emma: “DNA Aptamers that Selectively Bind to Hydroxyapatite” Jake: “Calcium phosphate supersaturation ratios alter DNA-templated mineralization in...
When fluorescently-tagged DNA aptamers bind to hydroxyapatite (and you centrifuge it down to make a pellet), you get really cool glowing HAP! Great job Emma!
Every summer Emmanuel College alumni and past members of the Gerdon Research Team gather to share stories, reminisce about past days in the lab, and celebrate the great research adventures to which they contributed. This year was no exception! Thirteen alumni from the classes of 2013 – 2018 joined three current students from the future classes of 2019 – 2021 along with Dr. Gerdon for a great evening and gathering. It is so impressive to see where the alumni go in life and in science. All alumni should be very proud of their successes and it is great to see alumni share their wisdom with current students. The “travel award” goes to Jack for his heroic effort to join us from the reaches of Maine! See you all again next year, if not...