Jan30
Posted on Jan 30 by
It’s not often that Dr. Gerdon gets to head into the lab to work on a new experiment, but the introduction of a new LC-MS instrument in the department was the right catalyst! Dr. Gerdon is hoping to using this instrument in the Analytical Chemistry class at the end of the Spring 2018 semester to help students study and quantify FDC dyes (Blue 1, Yellow 5, and maybe others) in a mixture. It’s a fun project and a great opportunity to work with a new instrument. Maybe there will be applications for studying DNA and calcium binding down the road as...
Dec02
Posted on Dec 2 by
Dr. Gerdon is teaching the CHEM 1103 class this fall semester. This is an accelerated course that covers two semesters of general chemistry in just one term. Freshmen in this course have a strong background in chemistry and math coming into Emmanuel College and excel in this setting. In lab, these students get to learn more advanced techniques, including gold nanoparticle synthesis and analysis of mineralization. These students synthesized glutathione protected monolayer protected clusters (MPCs) and will test them as templates in calcium phosphate mineralization. This will help the research team understand the influence of nanoparticles on mineral formation. Thanks to the CHEM 1103...
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...
