Peach picking

The Pompano lab took a field trip to Chiles Orchard in Crozet to celebrate a successful summer. Lots of peach cobbler the following week. Yum!

Pompano lab joins the UVA Cancer Center

We are thrilled to be the newest member of the UVA Cancer Center as part of the Immunology & Immunotherapy Program.  We look forward to participating in the research of the center and being part of a community that seeks to find treatments and cures for such a devastating set of diseases.

The UVA Cancer Center is one of a prestigious national network of centers supported by the National Cancer Institute at the NIH.

Active Learning for Analytical Chemistry workshop

I was very fortunate to be selected to participate in the NSF-funded Active Learning for Analytical Chemistry workshop, organized by Tom Wenzel of Bates College.  Thirty faculty from all over the country met at beautiful Indiana University Bloomington and worked for four days on developing course materials to better engage their students.  Many thanks to the facilitators and organizers for sharing their experiences and advice, and to the NSF Education division for funding the workshop.  I look forward to applying these activities to my Analytical Chem course this fall.

Public talk at UVA Forward

“A Glimpse into the Chemistry of the Immune System”

It was a special honor to be invited to speak to UVA staff members at their annual professional development event in June 2018. Although the event was meant to inspire the attendees, in the end it was just as inspiring for me! Sharing our lab’s vision, goals, and progress with people from mostly non-science backgrounds, many of whom provide the daily support that make it possible, was a special privilege and a touching reminder of why I am here.

Prof. Pompano named Lab on a Chip Emerging Investigator

Professor Pompano was named an Emerging Investigator by Lab on a Chip, following publication of our article on a movable port for stimulation of slices of live tissue.  What an honor!  You can read the full interview here.

Lab on a Chip paper published

Congratulations to Meg Catterton for putting out a great paper. You can read about her cool SlipChip for movable stimulation of lymph nodes and other tissue slices online today in Lab on a Chip.  This technology enables the user to move a microfluidic port to a desired location under a slice of tissue or 3D culture of cells, and deliver solution just to that spot.  We hope it will be useful for many other researchers who are interested in local events in live tissue.  Contact us if you are interested in testing it out!

User-defined local stimulation of live tissue through a movable microfluidic port

Welcome Gianna Haskin from Xavier University

We are thrilled to have Gianna Haskin, a rising second year student at Xavier University of Louisiana, join us for summer research this summer.  She is participating in the First Year Research Experience (FYRE) program, a nationwide program that sponsors first-time research experiences after the first year of college.  Gianna is working on pioneering methods for long term culture of lymph node slices!  She has done a great job in her first month, and we look forward to seeing what she achieves by the end of the summer.

Good Luck to Drake, Ben and Kristen!

As UVA begins to prepare for Final Exercises we want to thank all our graduating undergrads for all their hard work over the past years.  Many of them have been part of the lab since the first summer and they have helped shape the lab and develop many of our novel procedures.  They have done excellent work and we wish them the best of luck as they move forward in their scientific careers. 

We will miss you all but look forward to seeing your future accomplishments.

The Pompano Lab at AAI

Maura Belanger presented at the annual AAI conference held this year in Austin, Texas  She presented her work on delivery of beads to lymph node slices.  While there she saw some great talks and returned with a lot of new ideas for the lab.  We look forward to the new insights and to following some of the scientific advancements coming out of this conference!

Alyssa M. and Rebecca Y. win summer research fellowships

Congratulations to 1st-year student Alyssa Montalbine and 2nd-year student Rebecca Yoo, who each won competitive undergraduate research fellowships to fund their work in the lab this summer!  Alyssa received a NanoSTAR fellowship for her work on a scaffold for an artificial lymph node, and Rebecca received a Department of Chemistry fellowship and a College Science Scholars award for her work testing the effects of fluid flow on lymph node tissue.  We are excited to have them here with us this summer!