Congrats to Ben and Maura for being awarded a Double Hoo Research Grant through the Center for Undergraduate Excellence at the University of Virginia! This prestigious award will allow them to continue working together on a project entitled: Visualization and Quantification of Immune Responses in Lymph Nodes. They look forward to being able to work together this coming summer to complete this project. More information can be found in the related UVA Today news article.
Prof. Pompano named a Hartwell Investigator
On April 1, Professor Pompano was honored to be named a 2015 Hartwell Investigator. The Hartwell Foundation funds early-stage, innovative, and cutting-edge biomedical research to benefit children. The 2015 Hartwell Individual Biomedical Research Award will fund our work using microfluidics to guide the design of therapeutic vaccines for children with neuroblastoma.
More information about the Foundation and the award can be found by clicking through the image above.
Read more about the award in the Chemistry department news and in the UVA Today. Congratulations also to Prof. John Lukens of the BIG Center, who also received a Hartwell Award this year!
Visit from St. Anne's
We were lucky enough to be visited by the talented chemistry students at St. Anne's Belfield School in February. We were able to advise them on their long term, multidisciplinary projects which covered topics such as glass manufacturing and fermentation. It was great to hear about their projects and give them some new ideas. We also took them on a tour of the lab where they got to see microfluidics in action!
Welcome New Students!
As we start the new semester we would like to welcome three new graduate students! Welcome Meg Catterton, Lexy Chernish, and Jen Ortiz! We look forward to the great work that they will accomplish in the next few years.
BIG Center
We have recently joined the Center for Brain Immunology and Glia (BIG) as an adjunct member. We are excited to use this new connection to expand our research into Alzheimer's and Multiple Sclerosis. For more information on this center click the image above
CSS Symposium
Recently one of our undergrads, Drake Dixon, has presented his summer research to the members of the College Science Scholars Program. He talked about the work he has done on immunometabolism. For more information about the CSS program click the link below:
http://sciencescholars.clas.virginia.edu
Off to Microtas!
Professor Pompano is on her way to Gyeongju South Korea to the Microtas conference! She will be presenting on the device that has been designed and extensively characterized by Dr. Ashley Ross and Jacob Woodroof. We wish her safe travels and hope she brings back some new techniques to try! Click on the image to see more about the conference in general
Thanks to VCU Chem & Life Sci Engineering!
Prof. Pompano visited Virginia Commonwealth University's Chemical and Life Science Engineering department yesterday, presented our work on lymph node stimulation, and had a series of stimulating conversations with the researchers there. Many thanks to Dr. Christina Tang for the invitation!
It's been a great summer
Everyone has done some great work this summer and we have really made some great progress towards our lab goals! We have all learned a lot of new skills and have some cool new instruments, including a brand new Zeiss Zoom! We are all looking forward to the new school year and to continuing the work we have started this summer.
Using the Zoom
The Zoom
The Summer Researchers
Group Party
Group Picture
Lymph node cake
The Pompano group had a party at Professor Pompano's house to celebrate the end of the year, complete with a lymph node cake!
Its been a great first year for the lab, and we look forward for the great work we will be doing this summer and in the upcoming years!
Lab members enjoying the playground
