Jun20
Posted on Jun 20 by
Let’s face it, the students get to do all the work and have all the fun! But, on a rare occasion, Dr. Gerdon has been able to find a few spare moments for an experiment of his own, to try to push some experiments forward and collect some preliminary data. Being in the lab is definitely a treat for Dr. Gerdon, but barring that, the next best thing is to teach new students about new experiments and to delve into some data analysis after the students have done all the hard work. Dr. Gerdon’s experiment for last week had to do with testing some new flow conditions for our microfluidic devices and to test out a new setup for making fluorescence measurements in our devices. One nice image is attached here – please try to ignore the air bubble… We are also happy to welcome Sam and Katarina to the group to work on some new projects in the...
Jun20
Posted on Jun 20 by
For the summer, Alex has taken on the role of studying the effects of DNA aptamers on the crystallinity and morphology of calcium phosphate materials. To do so, he has been running mineralization experiments at different time points and concentrations of DNA aptamer with the various sequences of DNA and measuring the mineral with Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR). To add to the analysis, he will be learning new techniques to measure particle size through both Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS) at Emmanuel College and Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) at the Harvard Medical School EM Facility in the upcoming...
Jun01
Posted on Jun 1 by
Jake has been spending an immense amount of time studying for the Dental Admissions Test that he will be taking at the end of the summer. He has also been shadowing a general dentist and oral surgeon. Although very busy, Jake finds time to continue his research this summer in hopes of finding the role of the G-quadruplex in calcium phosphate mineralization. He is glad he gets to break up his study-filled days with a relaxing day at the...
May25
Posted on May 25 by
With the graduation of the 2018 seniors, Emma, Alex, and Jake are heading into summer research with more autonomy than ever. The seniors will be missed and their research knowledge will be missed more. As the summer students continue to grow as researchers, they are getting back to basics to perfect the skills the seniors passed down. A refresher on making of the daily solutions, pH calibration on Toledo, and other lab procedures are needed to ensure success. The summer students are excited to continue the exploration of the effect of DNA on mineralization and other biomineral...
May25
Posted on May 25 by
Emmanuel College Commencement, held on May 12th, saw research seniors Bobby Tzepos, Krista Meserve, and Jason Miech walk proudly across the stage to grab that coveted degree. Bobby, Krista, and Jason contributed endless hours, gigabites of data, and pages upon pages of lab notebook records to our research group. They will be missed in the group, but we are all excited for what’s in store for them all. We’re excited to watch their progress in chemistry, careers, and...
Apr19
Posted on Apr 19 by
Congratulations to Krista Meserve ’18 on her presentation at the Northeast Student Chemistry Research Conference in Boston this past weekend. Krista presented on “Precipitation SELEX: selection and study of DNA aptamers that template calcium phosphate mineralization”. Also, a very big congratulations to Krista on announcing that she will be joining Matrivax in June as a Research...
