Ten to the Negative Ninth

 On Monday, Dr. Josh Schwartz came and spoke to our Nanoscience class about the development of preclinical cellular models of syndromic Autisms Spectrum Disorders (ASDs) in regards to nano-electrode arrays.  Dr. Schwartz is from around my same hometown so it was interesting to see someone who came from the same place go and do different things. This was a very fascinating and dense in information talk so I will just be focusing on the things that I found especially interesting.      Perhaps the most interesting point was that a lot of the mutations in genes occur in synaptic genes. Synapses are where two nerve cells meet and are correlated to a lot of important developmental factors. In general psychology classes, one of the first things discussed is the anatomy of the brain: the different cortexes, the spinal cord, and neurons. One of the second things learned is how important neural health is especially in development. We learn how children who have less physical contact with their m

      This summer, I will be interning at a Clinical Trial Research Facility in Cincinnati, Ohio as a project coordinator intern, helping with clinical trials at all stages/phases. Therefore, when asked to explore the National Library of Medicine's comprehensive Clinical Trial database, I thoroughly searched the website. Before getting to the task at hand, I did search for Clinical Trials posted by the company that I will be working for in less than two weeks, Medpace. I found 65 studies done specifically by their Pharmacology unit; the company as a whole specializes in hematology, cardiology, and immunology. Medpace does a small amount of oncology research, but I could find nothing about nanoparticles. Therefore, I had to expand my search to connect oncology to nanoscience!     Instead of staying near Ohio (which I honestly kind of expected, the Ohio Valley Region has some of the top hospitals in the country), I found a clinical trial all the way in California testing Lung Cancer

      This week, our Nanoscience class had a zoom call with Dr. Charli Fant, a Transylvania graduate who now works for Zoetis. Zoetis is the world's largest animal health company, providing medicines, vaccines, genetic work, bio devices, data analytics, and biosensors for animals both domesticated livestock and pets. Dr. Fant works at the Zoetis Incubator of Northern Colorado, or ZINC, and their goal is to build up what is referred to as in silico biology. In silico biology harnesses the power of computers — computational biology, statistical testing, artificial intelligence, and data sciences. This limits the testing directly done on animals, which is a huge benefit. Essentially, everything that can be done in computer generated programming is done; testing on animals is the last step, done only when needed. As mentioned earlier, the research done through Zoetis is done for the benefit of both livestock and pets. While I have a dog that I love very much, I have a decent background

My Favorite Electron Micrograph: Source Link: https://www.olympus-lifescience.com/en/bioscapes/authors/igor-siwanowicz/      When looking for microscope images, I knew I wanted to pick one that imaged an aquatic organism. I scuba dive and love micro-scale photography of marine organisms. Obviously, this is even more micro scale than normal micro-scale photography, which made it even more fascinating. This is a confocal microscopy image of a single atom fresh water algae magnified 400x. Confocal imaging uses lasers through a regular compound microscope, any excess light is then rejected by the confocal aperture, creating a higher resolution and allowing for a much greater magnification. This image shows a desmidiale which is a type of green algae that is known for its symmetry. It consists of two 2 semi-cells, connected by a narrow bridge. Each one of these semi-cells houses a large chloroplasts for photosynthesizing. Most are either round or star shaped, and quite small. However, some

On Thursday, our class toured the University of Kentucky's Electron Microscopy Center. However, due to the NCAA tournament in Lexington, Virginia, I was unable to attend. However, based on what our professors informed us about, and what I heard from my fellow classmates, three different types of microscopy were discussed: Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Focused Ion Beam Microscopy, and Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy. I am disappointed that I was unable to attend the field trip, as these devices have not only enabled so many advancements in scientific fields, but will continue to do so.      I would first like to start with a discussion of what I learned from Chapter 5 in our book Size Really Does Matter  by Colm Durkan. As a biology student, microscopes have played an utmost important role in my laboratory experiences. Specifically, this last semester as a microbiology student, I was using microscopes and relying on their magnification three times a week. The main difficulty o

On Tuesday, our Nanoscience class had the opportunity to tour the University of Kentucky's Advanced Science and Technology Commercialization Center where they specialize in certain nanotechnologies including nano-scribes and photolithography. I was super excited about this trip; I have an older brother who graduated from the UK College of Engineering, and he had told me about some of the interesting equipment and research that the ASteCC does. So, it was very interesting to see some of the equipment in real life finally. Our tour included four different stops: electron beam lithography, photonics, the clean room, and an atomic force microscope.  Stop 1:   Our first stop was to the basement of the center where a graduate student showed us electron beam lithography. This device uses a reverse electron beam microscope which has a patterned generator, allowing a stream of electrons to be emitted in specific patterns. An electron beam lithographer works similarly to a nano-scribe, which