Katerina Morgaenko, a PhD student in the Biomedical Engineering program, was awarded a 2022 Trainee Fellowship from the UVA Cancer Center. In her proposal, “Ex vivo Model of Lymph Node Metastasis in Breast Cancer,” She'll be making the first-ever model of tumor cell infiltration into the lymph node parenchyma, using lymph node slices. The award will support Katerina's training and research in this area. Big congratulations, Katerina!
Putt-Putt Outing!
Lab members had a wonderful outing last week! We had a good time during a hot summer evening!
Prof. Pompano Chairs the inaugural Immunoengineering GRC
Prof. Pompano was honored to Co-Chair the meeting with co-chair Bali Pulendran and vice chairs Susan N. Thomas and Madhav Dhodapkar. Tochi and Katerina both presented their research in posters. This was great time and opportunity to connect with this growing community!
Congratulations to Nadia Cheng with mentor Jonathan Zatorski and Dorienne Hochard with mentor Parris Anbaei for the nano-STAR Summer Fellowship!
Every year, nanoSTAR invites undergraduate students to apply to spend a summer in their UVA laboratory. They match students to nanoscience projects based on their interests and abilities and students will get hands-on laboratory experience while learning the subject. They will prepare for a culminating oral and poster presentations at the end of the program. We are proud of Nadia and Jon for winning this!
Celebration for Lavoisier
Yesterday we celebrated Research Scientist Dr. Lavoisier Akoolo (3rd from left, 2nd row), who is moving into a leadership role in UVA's Biorepository & Tissue Research Facility. He has been a part of our group since October 2020, and made significant contributions to our understanding of cell behavior in lymph node slices during long term culture. We will miss him and wish him the best in his new position!
We had a great time outside with ice cream and delicious treats home-made by Djuro and Jon. Yum!
Congratulations to Peyton Hamlett and Tochukwu Ozulumba for the GIDI-UP Fellowship!
GIDI-UP is a Summer Research award for undergraduate/postdoctorate fellow pairs. The pair has been granted the award in their research this summer for developing a 3D hydrogel based model of the human lymph node to study vaccination. We are very proud of them!
Jonathan Zatorski and Isabellą Lee Awarded the UVA DoubleHoo Award!
Congratulations to Jon and Izzy who were awarded the UVA DoubleHoo (https://undergraduateresearch.virginia.edu/our-opportunities/grants/double-hoo-award) for their shared project to quantify the extent of photocrosslinking in gels by proton NMR!
Sophie Cook Awarded the Sidney M. Hecht Graduate Fellowship in Chemistry for next year!
The Hecht Fellowship was established by Professor Sidney Hecht whose mid-career spanned 28 highly prolific and influential years in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Virginia. The Hecht Fellowship secures one full year of living support with a $2000 additional award as well as the standard healthcare and tuition & fees support. It goes to a single student each year based on excellence in their graduate studies and research. Congratulations Sophie!! This is well deserved.
New paper: Photopatterned 3D cultures in a chip
We are delighted that Jennifer Ortiz-Cardenas’s thesis work is now published in Organs-on-a-chip! Jenn established a method to micropattern cell-laden 3D cultures on a microfluidic chip, with resolution as good as 100-micron. She established everything from how to design and fabricate the PDMS chamber to avoid catching bubbles or patterning microcracks in the gel, to choosing what light source would provide the required wavelength, intensity, and columnation, to rigorously comparing the properties of two types of biomaterials in terms of patterning, and carefully establishing the capabilities and limitations of biocompatibility of this system with primary lymphocytes. Read the paper here! https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666102022000040
Ovi is off to Intel!
Yesterday we bid a fond farewell to postdoctoral scholar Amirus (Ovi) Saleheen, PhD. He has been a big contributor to our lymph-node chip project since arriving in fall 2020. He’s a whiz at microfabrication and the driving force behind some cool new technology that will be published soon. Now, he will be taking those skills to an exciting new position at Intel!
Congrats Ovi, we will miss you!
