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...
Jun24
Posted on Jun 24 by
Georgia has just joined the GRAB Lab as a rising sophomore! Research this summer has been amazing for her, and it is so surreal that she gets this opportunity to learn and grow! She has taken over the DNA Origami project from the wonderful Hailey Young, and it has overall been going well! There have been some setbacks with the thermocycler, but she is confident they will be resolved within the next couple of weeks. Some achievements include getting mineralized origami to show up on TEM, making arrays with different concentrations of magnesium and calcium, learning how to use the AFM instrument, and using the RealTime PCR instrument (see the picture)! She hopes the rest of the summer goes...
Jun13
Posted on Jun 13 by
Summer research has finally begun and is already almost halfway done! Juan’s time with the GRAB Lab is coming to an end soon, and this will be his last summer of research at Emmanuel College. Although there have been some small set-backs (which involved switching to a different QCM instrument), the summer has been busy and much has been accomplished. Some small achievements made this summer include exploring the detection of calcium using fluorescence, the use of AFM for surface characterization, determining the thickness and amount of collagen being applied, and much more! There are so many goals set for this summer…hopefully he can accomplish them...
Jun07
Posted on Jun 7 by
Marissa is excited to be back in Boston working on her research with gold nanoparticles. Now that the stressful spring semester has concluded, she can now place her full attention on her research. She has started work in developing new methods to characterize her nanoparticles, particularly in agarose gel electrophoresis to differentiate charges. She also aims to make progress on mineralization with nanoparticles, along with other experiments. Outside of research, she plans to traverse the Boston area and take advantage of the relatively cooler days before it heats up in July. This will be her last summer living in Boston so she wants to make the most of the time she has...
May29
Posted on May 29 by
Undergraduate researchers in the Department of Chemistry & Physics gathered on Friday to celebrate the start of the summer with fantastic Thai food, tasty burgers, and gigantic paper airplanes. It’s harder than it looks to make a good paper airplane out of an old research poster, but still a ton of fun. Welcome to Juan, Marissa, Georgia, and Dennis as they carry on the GRAB Lab tradition of amazing summer research progress. See you in the...
