Oct29
Posted on Oct 29 by
Senior Krista Meserve is all smiles in this selfie with the ICP-AES! This instrument utilizes atomic emission spectroscopy to measure the intensity of emission at a wavelength specific to the element of interest. Using a calibration curve, the intensity can be correlated to a concentration of the element, which is more useful to our work. Krista is using this instrument to calculate the difference in concentration of calcium in the presence and absence of DNA, hoping to understand how many individual calcium ions bind to a DNA strand. She is also smiling because she was awarded a travel grant from the New England Section of the American Chemical Society (NESACS) to travel to the ACS national meeting in New Orleans, LA this...
Oct22
Posted on Oct 22 by
After several weeks of synthesis, Alex finished the first batch of gold nanoparticle monolayer protected clusters (MPCs) using tiopronin, an amino acid derivative, as the protecting ligand. The gold MPCs will be tested with different concentrations of calcium and phosphate to test their effect on mineralization. Other molecules such as DNA and polyethylene glycol will be attached to the gold MPCs down the road to compare to the tiopronin gold...
Oct18
Posted on Oct 18 by
Senior Jason Miech took a break from research and school work to run his first half-marathon! He finished the BAA half-marathon with a time of 1 hour 47 minutes 22 seconds. Although running experiments and doing homework is important, it is equally as important to set aside some time for...
Oct11
Posted on Oct 11 by
All research students, including Bobby Tzepos, Jake Shlaferman, Emma Duffy, Jason Miech, and Krista Meserve, presented their summer research findings at Emmanuel College’s Summer Research Poster Presentation in September. This event is a great opportunity for undergraduate researchers at Emmanuel to present and share on-campus research conducted throughout the summer and school year. This poster session was great practice on presenting research needed for the upcoming ACS conference in the spring in New Orleans that Bobby, Jason, and Krista plan on attending. Bobby’s research is now focusing on the sandwich complex part of the “scheme,” where he is optimizing the cobalt nanoparticle-antibody coupling to yield the most efficient conjugation possible. Once that is complete, the goal is to finally detect a protein putting together the sandwich complex with stripping...
Sep29
Posted on Sep 29 by
Emma is starting the school year off strong by heading back into lab to continue the investigation of affinity equilibrium constants. She’s moving forward with a select few strands of DNA to do a more in-depth study of their affinity to hydroxyapatite. For the affinity experiments, binding is measured at a range of DNA concentrations and the Langmuir Isotherm will be used to calculate the equilibrium constants for the selected...
Aug25
Posted on Aug 25 by
After four beautiful years of hard work, successes and failures, and support from the National Science Foundation, Division of Materials Research, the group’s RUI grant came to a close. Through this award the group was extremely successful in developing, characterizing, and using a new analytical tool integrating mass analysis (QCM) and optical microscopy with microfluidic solution control. Check out the paper in Sensors and Actuators B and look forward to a new publication in the coming months. The SELEX team also came through with amazing results in selecting aptamers that influence mineralization and have a high affinity and selectivity for HAP. Check out the publication in Chemical Communications and look for more publications in the next year. A big thanks and congratulations to all the undergraduate and high school researchers involved in this work! Hillary, Tori, Geoff, Sarah, Sam, Greg, Keith, Darren, Juliann, Aimee, Josh, Jack, Katerina, David, Jason, Krista, Jake, Emma, and many more – Thank...
