UPR-Mayagüez REU RMSM Blog

REU adventure en La Isla del Encanto!

Submitted by Claudia Santana Monterrey on

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Before coming to Puerto Rico this summer I had no idea what to expect. I had heard what a beautiful island it was, as well the rich culture I was going to find; however, the idea of spending ten weeks here collaborating with research was still scary. Today, 2 months into the program. I am glad to say that I would not change this experience for any other. This has been a wonderful learning adventure for me. I learned not only about soft matter and my topic of research, but also about “la Isla de Encanto”, its history, culture and more important its people. Additionally, I spent time with an exceptional group of students who were also part of the REU, and who I am proud to call my friends now.

Experimenting With Drugs in Puerto Rico

Submitted by Jacob Townsend on

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Yes, I have been experimenting with drugs all summer in Puerto Rico!  It's true, but probably not in the way you were thinking!  In my 10 week stay at the University of Puerto Rico Mayaguez, my lab has been doing studies on near infrared spectroscopy with pharmaceutical powders.  It was initially our goal to quantify low concentrations of pharmaceuticals in a powder.  However, when this was attempted, there were many hurdles.  The character of the powder's composition made a larger impact on the spectra than small differences in Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API) content.

Research Experience at UPRM (REU)

Submitted by Jacob Townsend on

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Over the summer, I have been doing research at the University of Puerto Rico in Mayaguez with professors Rafael Mendez and Rodolfo Romanach in the pharmaceutical research lab.  It has been great getting to work with them and the graduate students of the lab.  The research is focused on using light absorption characteristics of pharmaceuticals to detect their concentrations.  The method of interest has been near infrared spectroscopy.

REU Experience_Soft Matter Research

Submitted by Claudia Santana Monterrey on

Claudia Santana Monterrey's picture

During this summer 2015 I have participated in the REU program at the University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez. This program has offered me the opportunity not only of conducting research alongside very knowledgeable faculty, but of becoming more familiar with the beautiful Island of Puerto Rico, the people, and its very rich culture. Furthermore, during this time, I have been working on a project with Dr. Paul Sundaran and Jeromi Lopez.  In our project, we intend to describe the mechanical properties of mineralized tendons. In order to do this, we have submerged the tissue in a fluid that recreates the properties of regular body fluid (simulated body fluids plus HA (minerals)). We will try different approaches for mineral addition, submersion and injection.

Reconfigurable and Multifunctional Soft Materials REU– UPRM

Submitted by Hilary Marrero on

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Nano-bubbles are air or other gas bubbles immersed in water with a diameter of approximately 150-200 nm. During the last years, they have been studied due to their great number of applications in the areas of Alzheimer disease, cancer, cleaning agents, drug delivery and gene delivery. In the same way, bubbles are the cause of decompression sickness (DCS). This sickness is related to persons working on submarines, high altitude works and more commonly, divers. When a person is diving deep and then goes up suddenly to the surface, bubbles are formed in their tissues due to the change from high pressure to low pressure. These ones can block the flow of blood in the vessels and produce a gas embolism. During this summer, I am working in Dr.

Beta-peptides as synergistic complements to current antifungal treatments

Submitted by Lance Bettinson on

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I am Lance Bettinson, a Stanford chemical engineering student fortunate enough to participate in the REU program here at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez. When UPRM offered me the chance to pursue interdisciplinary summer research in chemical engineering, I accepted without hesitation. I anticipated a wealth of new cultural and academic experiences accompanying the opportunity to contribute to the scientific effort here in the Caribbean. I have yet to be disappointed.

Undesgrad Summer Research in Puerto Rico

Submitted by Jessica Raquel Bojorquez on

Jessica Raquel Bojorquez's picture

I am an undergrad student from California performing research in Puerto Rico. I arrived to PR after ending my semester and it has been a great experience so far.  I am currently performing research with the chemistry department in University of Puerto Rico Mayaguez, or as known here in PR, el Colegio.  My project relates to the issue that currently there is a lot of contamination in water. Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy, SERS, is a spectroscopic technique with strong Raman signal when molecules are attached to metallic structures, silver or gold.

UPRM REU Experience

Submitted by Jacoby Shipmon on

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Hi, my name is Jacoby Shipmon. I am a Biological Engineering student from Atlanta, Georgia who attends North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University. This summer I am working as an undergraduate researcher in a REU (Research Experience for Undergraduates) on multifunctional soft materials at the University of Puerto Rico Mayaguez. The purpose of this program is to immerse us in our individual research projects while allowing us time, on the weekends, to explore Puerto Rico. I wanted to start this post by saying how grateful I am for being here and having the opportunity to visit the beautiful island of Puerto Rico. So far I have had the chance to visit, and fall in love with, some of the numerous beautiful beaches that the island has.

Tumor-Targeted Magnetic Nanoparticles for Thermo-Controlled Drug Delivery

Submitted by Janet Marielis Crespo Cajigas on

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Triple Negative Breast Cancer or TNBC is a disease that affects 15% women all over the world. The current treatments for this and all cancers in general are chemotherapy and radiotherapy both of which are as harmful as they are helpful to the cells in the human body. However, the field of nanotechnology with applications in medicine is becoming a vital point in modern research. A regular cell is in the microscale in size which signifies that a nanoparticle (1,000 micrometers smaller) can easily find a way inside a cell and release the drug it carries.

RMSM REU - Aggregation Dynamics of Active Shifted-Dipole Particle Suspensions

Submitted by Angel Christian González Martell on

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My name is Angel González and I am a student of mechanical engineering at UPRM. At this time I am just 9 credits from my degree and graduate school seems like will be the next step in my career. This is why I decided to apply to the Reconfigurable & Multifunctional Soft Materials REU, to explore the areas of research at my alma mater and acquire skills that will help me through my professional development. So far, one month into the program, I've got the opportunity to learn things that will not only help me during grad school, but throughout my entire life thanks to the seminars and all the activities that our REU managers have arranged for us in addition to the hands on experience that we get on research.

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