sábado, 31 de julio de 2010

El primer día en el College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering estuve muy emocianada, ya que nos dieron
un tour por todo el collge, nos mostraron los cleanrooms y los laboratorios, es impresionante la cantidad de tecnología
que tienen aquí. Después tuve la oportunidad de conocer a mi mentor, Dr. Robert Brainard y a su estudiante graduado, Seth Kruger, los dos son unas personas increibles!


He aprendido muchisimas cosas, desde el primer día que nos dieron el entrenamiento de seguridad en el laboratorio, hasta preparar polímeros y amplificadores ácidos, el cual es el nombre de mi proyecto.

Actualmente las fotoresistencias contienen: PAG (Photo Acid Generator), polímero, base y en este caso, amplificadores ácidos para interactuar con luz EUV (Extreme Ultra Violet)
Las metas de este proyecto son: darle mayor sensibilidad a la resistencia, disminuir LER (line edge roughness) y aumentar la resolución.
Esto con el fin de lograr el desarrollo de chips de computadora mas pequeños.

El proceso de la litografía EUV consiste en:
1.cubrir el wafer con la resistencia
2.exponer a la luz y el PAG ayuda a generar el ácido
3.el amplificador acido reacciona para generar más ácido de forma autocatalitica
4.desarrollo en solucion basica

En lo que estuve trabajando este verano, fue principalmente en unir el amplificador acido a el polimero, de manera que la
difusion del acido este mas controlada y lograr los objetivos antes mencionados, algunas de estas resistencias fueron mandadas a california
para ser probadas, aun estamos en espera de resultados.

El martes tendré mi presentación ante mi grupo de laboratorio y el 11 de agosto será la presentación del poster! deseenme suerte =)

sábado, 17 de julio de 2010

Once I arrived to the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (CNSE) complex I felt excited and happy to be there. It was amazing how much technology was gathered in order to develop nanotechnology and nanosciences. For all summer interns it was really rewarding when we were guided along installations and when seeing tools and people working around seriously and accordingly to requirements of work in this impressive place.

The morning of the first day in there was full of work and previous trainings for avoiding accidents in next weeks of work!! That same day it was when I finally met my advisors, the professors Susan Sharfstein and Anand Gadre, they both members of the constellation of Nanobioscience in the CNSE. They were pretty empathic with me and made me feel very comfortable when meeting them. I also met my mentor, the PhD student Anthony Davis.

Starting the first week I knew about the project in which I work now, this project is called “Fabrication and functionalization of Electrospun nanofibers for real-time measurements in bioreactors: glucose and lactate “, and despite the complex name, It is basically about the fabrication of a nanoscale biosensor which can be able to measure concentrations of specific molecules of interest in human body, such as Glucose, which excess or lack in body is the reason of Diabetes in many people around the world. Specifically, we focus on Glucose as a very important analyte in struggle against Diabetes. This sensor is based in electrospun PLGA (Poly Lactic-co-Glicolic acid) nanofibers functionalized with the enzyme Glucose Oxidase (GOX) in order to identify its concentration in blood, for instance.

In my group we are 4 people working in the project: my two advisors, my mentor and me, but since the first day, one of the objectives was getting me to work independently.

These last weeks have been pretty fruitful, and I can sum them up like a plenty of work in the lab, (Nanobio labs), and also research in the literature (a lot of papers) for finding useful and applicable processes for our goal, the chemical modification of PLGA nanofibers with GOX enzyme and the use of this system in biosensing applications. Finally, we are realizing now a plenty of attempts and tests of the functionality of the GOX modified nanofibers in the detection of Glucose concentrations.

The final presentation of my project will be in July 27 th, and last preparations are already being done. I will be ready!

I will be posting again very soon. I am really enjoying my time here and next time I will be talking more about my project.

Warm regrets to everybody!! I wish the best to all in their summer experiences.

Pablo Soriano

CNSE, College of Nanoscale Science and engineering.