Month: December 2024

Undergraduate Researchers Shine at the AIChE Annual Student Conference

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We are proud to celebrate the incredible achievements of our undergraduate students at this year’s American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) Annual Student Conference. 

Joseph Choi
🥈2nd Place – Computing, Simulation, and Process Control III
Advisor: Prof. Matthew Stuber, PhD
Poster Title: “Automatic Generation of Reduced-Space Models for Faster Global Optimization in Julia”

Nathaniel Rodney
🥉3rd Place – Food, Pharmaceutical, and Biotechnology II
Advisor: Wendy W.K. Mok (UConn Health)
Poster Title: “Riboswitch Engineering: Tracking Levofloxacin Accumulation and Oxidative Damage in Single Cells Using Biosensors”

Mehr Chhatre
🥉3rd Place – Environmental Science and Engineering I
Advisor: Prof. Leslie Shor
Poster Title: “Modulation of Hydrophobic Organic Contaminant Toxicity to Soil Protists via Co-Exposure with Microplastics”

Special Recognition to All Our Student Presenters:
Aislin Robb
Advisor: Prof. Yongku Cho
Poster Title: “Protein 14-3-3 Expression on Yeast Surface Display”

Sanjana Srinivas
Advisor: Prof. Kelly Burke
Poster Title: “Thiol-Functionalized Silk Biomaterials, a Study of Two Different Synthetic Routes”

Katelynn Horvath
Advisor: Prof. Yongku Cho
Poster Title: “Engineering Binding Affinity of Yth to m6A-RNA Leveraging Yeast Surface Display and Next-Generation Sequencing for Comprehensive Mutant Library Analysis”

Their hard work and commitment to research excellence continue to inspire us. Congratulations to all our students on their outstanding accomplishments! 

Erik Ammermann Wins the AIChE Food, Pharmaceutical, and Bioengineering Division Student Oral Presentation Award

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Congratulations to our graduate student Erik Ammermann for winning the Food, Pharmaceutical, and Bioengineering Division Student Oral Presentation Award at the 2024 AIChE Annual Meeting!

Erik is a PhD student in our department working with Professor Yongku Cho to advance the understanding of tau phosphorylation in Alzheimer’s disease. Elevated levels of phosphorylated tau (p-tau) are linked to disease progression, but current methods to study these modifications are insufficient. Erik is tackling this challenge by developing a groundbreaking method to produce full-length human tau with genetically defined phosphoserine sites in engineered E. coli.

Well done, Erik! We’re excited to see what’s next. 

Read more on Erik’s work in the Technical Program.

Water Research Foundation Awards Top Honor to McCutcheon

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The Water Research Foundation (WRF) has honored Professor Jeff McCutcheon with its top recognition: the Paul L. Busch Award. Dr. McCutcheon and his lab have developed a groundbreaking additive manufacturing approach to produce thin-film water treatment membranes. This method, based on electrohydrodynamic spray processing, enables customization of membrane chemistry and performance—capabilities that traditional manufacturing techniques cannot achieve.

The Paul L. Busch Award celebrates individuals conducting innovative research in water quality and the water environment, focusing on those who transform discoveries into practical solutions. Dr. McCutcheon’s work represents a bold step forward in addressing complex water contamination challenges through tailored, next-generation membrane technology.

Read more on UConn Today and the Water Research Foundation Press Release.

 

Laurencin Presents at Dreyfus Foundation’s 2024 Teacher-Scholar Symposium

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We are thrilled to celebrate Professor Cato Laurencin, who presented a lecture on regenerative engineering at the Dreyfus Foundation’s 2024 Teacher-Scholar Symposium. As a pioneer of this field, Dr. Laurencin holds the unique distinction of being the first surgeon-scientist elected to all four National Academies: Sciences, Engineering, Medicine, and Inventors.

He is an expert in biomaterials science, stem cell technology and nanotechnology and was named one of the 100 Engineers of the Modern Era by the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. He received the Founder’s Award (highest award) from the Society for Biomaterials, the Von Hippel Award (highest award) from the Materials Research Society and the James Bailey Award (highest award) from the Society for Biological Engineering. He received the NIH Director’s Pioneer Award, NIH’s highest and most prestigious research award, for his new field of Regenerative Engineering and the National Science Foundation’s Emerging Frontiers in Research and Innovation Grant Award. Dr. Laurencin is the Editor-in-Chief of Regenerative Engineering and Translational Medicine and is the Founder of the Regenerative Engineering Society. He is a Fellow of the American Chemical Society, a Fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, a Fellow of the Biomedical Engineering Society, a Fellow of the Materials Research Society and a AAAS Fellow. The American Association for the Advancement of Science awarded Dr. Laurencin the Philip Hauge Abelson Prize given ‘for signal contributions to the advancement of science in the United States’.

Read more about Dr. Laurencin’s talk on UConn Today.