NIH U01 for Lymph Node Chip

This week we learned that we have officially been awarded a $3.3 million dollar grant to generate the world’s first spatially organized micro-physiological model of a human lymph node. This U01 award from the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) at the National Institutes of Heath provides 5 years of funding for this project.

We are delighted to work with a stellar team of researchers, including:

• Jennifer Munson, PhD at Virginia Tech

• John Luckey, MD, UVA Pathology

• Tom Braciale, MD PhD, UVA Pathology

As new members of the NIH-sponsored Organ-on-chip Consortium, we are looking forward to bringing a lymph node to the burgeoning human-on-chip system!

Summer outing to Walnut Creek

We took our second annual summer lab outing on Friday July 19, with a trip to beautiful Walnut Creek in Albemarle County, VA. Hiking, swimming, canoeing, and sand castles kept us happy despite the near 100 degree heat.

Hiding in the shade.

Keeping cool in the water.

Not pictured but in attendance: Sangjo Shim and his family!

Protein conjugation chip funded by NIH

Today the Pompano lab is celebrating a notice of funding for our focused R03 proposal. In collaboration with the Landers lab, we are building a microchip to help researchers efficiently add fluorophores to proteins without trial and error.

Many thanks to the National Institutes of Health, specifically the NIBIB (National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering), for funding this exciting work.

Kudos to PhD student Andrew Kinman for leading this project and helping craft a successful grant proposal.

Visit to Chinese University of Hong Kong

It was very special to be invited to speak at the Chinese University of Hong Kong in the department of Chemistry, meeting up with former Ismagilov-lab colleague Prof. Bo Zheng for the day. Plus we got a beautiful view from the top of the mountain that this unique university is built upon.

Microfluidics GRC in Hong Kong

Prof. Pompano and Jennifer Ortiz made the trek to Hong Kong to present in the 2019 Gordon Research Conference for Physics and Chemistry of Microfluidics. It was a wonderful conference, filled with much exciting new data as well as new and old friends. Plus we had a great time exploring. Jenn’s poster, Rebecca’s poster on Meg and Sophie’s recent work, and Rebecca’s short talk went over well and we received lots of valuable feedback. Look for papers on these topics soon!

Prof. Pompano featured in LabRoots virtual event

Prof. Pompano was an invited speaker for the LabRoots virtual event on Laboratory Testing & Automation 2019 on May 30. This is a free online conference featuring leaders in microfluidics giving presentations and tutorials on their work. You can stream it online for several months afterwards at http://bit.ly/lab-auto-2019 .

Supporting young researchers at science fair

In March, Pompano Lab member Maura Belanger volunteered as a judge for the 2019 Virginia Piedmont Regional Science Fair, where hundreds high school and middle school students from all over the state came and shared their projects! This annual event is a great way to get students interested in science and interact with the community at large. It’s always an inspiration to see these students get excited about sharing their experiments! Congrats to all the winners this year!!

Spring conference season

The Pompano lab sent a cohort both to Pittcon and to the Society for Biomaterials annual meeting last month.

• Pittcon 2019, Philadelphia, PA — Maura, Andrew, Austin, Parris, Jon, and Alyssa all presented posters or oral presentations. Dr. Pompano also gave two invited symposium talks. Our presentations ranged from microfluidics to bioanalytical chemistry for live tissue.

• Society for Biomaterials 2019, Seattle, WA — Jenn presented a poster and Dr. Pompano started her term as Treasurer and Secretary of the Immunoengineering Special Interest Group.

It was great to hear so much exciting science. Everyone returned very motivated!

St. Patrick’s Day at Pittcon opening night

Jenn at SFB

1st-yr Jon Zatorski wins NSF GRFP

We are thrilled and honored that first-year PhD student Jon Zatorski was awarded an Graduate Research Fellowship from the National Science Foundation this week. This is a major accomplishment that reflects Jon’s hard work throughout his college career, in our lab over the summer before grad school officially began, and in the fall semester to draft a strong proposal and personal statement while also juggling coursework and teaching commitments. We are very excited to see what he achieves over the next few years!

Hutcheson undergraduate award

We are very proud of Eirini Stylianopoulos for being awarded a Hutcheson Undergraduate Research Fellowship for summer 2019! This competitive award is generously funded by a charitable gift from Randy and Rossie Hutcheson, for top undergraduates working in Carter Immunology Center labs on immunology projects. We look forward to Eirini’s work on antibody-based reagents to sense cytokines!