May 15, 2018
Several Schmidt Lab UG students are participating at competitive REU positions and internships across the country.
Isabella Young – UNC-Chapel Hill:
Isabella will be attending UNC-Chapel Hill from May 20-July 26 working with Dr. Aaron Anselmo. His lab is part of the Pharmacoengineering and Molecular Pharmaceutics Department in the School of Pharmacy. The Anselmo lab focuses on designing cell therapies, specifically microbiomes in the gastrointestinal tract. By studying the imbalance of microbes and microbiota (bacteria) in the body, which can cause disease and cancer, the lab is designing delivery platforms that can be used to regulate the microbiota composition. Additionally, the lab focuses on developing drug delivery systems using nanoparticles for vascular disease and cancer.
Tran Ngo- Johns Hopkins University:
Tran will be participating in the Nanotechnology for Biology and Engineering REU Program at Johns Hopkins University Institute of Nanotechnology from June 3 to August 10. She will be working in Dr. Soojung Claire Hur’s Microfluidic BioPhysics lab. The Hur Research Group focuses on developing microfluidic platforms that utilize the principles of fluid dynamics to understand relationships between cellular functions and their physical phenotype. These inertial microfluidic devices help to distinctively position cells in flow using their physical properties, and/or isolate and maintain identical populations of cells in the designated regions of the channel during the courses of controlled external stimuli. This summer, Tran will help to synthesize liposomes using extrusion method to generate vesicles with biotin labeled lipids and coated with micro-beads. These liposomes will be used as model for exosome separation in microfluidics channels. The goal is to use developed microfluidic channels to separate exosomes which contain rich nucleic acid content, floating in virtually all bodily fluids, to understand the inter-cellular signals that may propose a great potential for non-invasive molecular diagnostics.
Monica Wall – Worcester Polytechnic Institute:
Monica will be participating in the Biomedical Engineering REU at Worcester Polytechnic Institute outside of Boston this summer. She will be conducting research with Dr. Glen Gaudette, who works in the field of myocardial regeneration. In addition to research, participants will receive training in mentoring, become a mentor to a middle-school student, and participate in creating an outreach program for middle-school students. They will lead a one-week research experience known as the WPI Innovations in Bioengineering program.
In addition, PhD student Nik Agrawal and undergraduate student Nicole Bohmann both have industry internships with AxoGen here in Alachua this summer!
