Nov07
Posted on Nov 7 by
The whole research team had an amazing experience working with Dr. Gian Grant this past summer in our labs on campus at Emmanuel College. Last week was even better when Dr. Grant invited us to visit her school, Notre Dame Cristo Rey High School in Methuen, MA. Donalissa, Hailey, and Dr. Gerdon had a really great time meeting with Sr. Maryalyce Gilfeather, Principal Anthony Zavagnin, Dr. Grant, and nearly 50 amazing chemistry students in Dr. Grant’s class. We shared some information about Emmanuel College, about our shared connection to the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, and about our shared love of chemistry, learning, and research! We talked about our work in biomineralization and the students shared ideas for their science research projects going on this year. The Emmanuel team got to be “consultants” on their projects and they had some great ideas! A huge thank you to Donalissa and Hailey for donating their time, to Dr. Grant and Principal Zavagnin for being wonderful hosts, and to the awesome students at NDCR for sharing their ideas. We are grateful...
Oct26
Posted on Oct 26 by
A summer filled with research has ended, and the fall academic semester has finally begun. The theme for this new chapter of research has been change! Juan has currently changed the monitoring time-frame in which his mineralization experiments are conducted. By increasing how long the experiments last, he has gone from 20-hour experiments to multi-day experiments using DNA aptamer. The affect of changing the motion of the mineralization solution has also been explored. Currently, he is working on different static experiments and exploring new set-ups involving a non-moving mineralization solution. Hopefully, these changes will show promising results, but when it comes to research, you never know until you...
Oct19
Posted on Oct 19 by
Marissa has been hard at work synthesizing more gold nanoparticles to use in her place exchange experiments. She recently found that performing a place exchange reaction has potential to produce what she has been hoping for most of the summer. As she continues her junior year and her academics, she is looking to the future for her research and how she can connect it with the rest of GRAB lab research. She is also excited for the ACS Conference in the new year and looking to the summer of next year to continue research with the GRAB...
Oct13
Posted on Oct 13 by
Mixing Potions Kristy is taking the collagen mineralization project to the next level by continuing experiments to include gold nanoparticles. She’s finishing up her last year at Emmanuel College and is excited for her future career, but at the moment is focused on classes and research of course! Her first experiments will be with gold nanoparticles, hoping things will go better this time around after the learning curve on how to analyze the nanoparticles with ICP-AES (inductively-coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy). Kristy is also excited about the collagen mineralization manuscript she is preparing with co-authors to be submitted and published. It is so exciting to help bring everything together and seeing the impact of our...
Oct05
Posted on Oct 5 by
Congrats to Dr. Jason Miech ’18 once again for the successful defense of PhD thesis in Chemistry in the School of Molecular Sciences at Arizona State University. Now there’s more exciting news that Jason will be starting a Post-doctoral Fellow program at NASA to continue his work in air quality assessment. Congrats...
Oct05
Posted on Oct 5 by
Hailey’s been hard at work this semester trying to assemble larger structures from the six-helix bundle DNA origami. It can get a bit chilly when performing gel electrophoresis in the cold room, but at least the weather’s still warm! After a string of inconclusive attempts during the summer, she’s excited that she has finally has proof of attachment for one of the structures and hopefully will be seeing more soon! It may be her last year with the GRAB Lab but there’s still so much to look forward to for research, including the ACS conference and distinction in the field! Outside of research, she is aiming to explore more of Boston before she graduates, and is currently taking restaurant...
