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REU adventure en La Isla del Encanto!

Imagen de Claudia Santana Monterrey

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.

REU Experience_Soft Matter Research

Imagen de Claudia Santana Monterrey

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

Imagen de Hilary Marrero

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.

Undesgrad Summer Research in Puerto Rico

Imagen de Jessica Raquel Bojorquez

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.

Soft Matter Research at University of Puerto Rico - Mayaguez

Imagen de Hyeon Ju Song

Cancer has been and still remains a mystery for even the world's most renowned doctors. Although we understand the concept of cancer, we have failed to develop an effective and efficient method of treating it. Chemotherapy is one of the most common ways to treat cancer. However, it is not 100% efficient because it targets both healthy and cancerous cells. In addition, chemotherapy is not always 100% effective. In order to provide a more useful treatment to cancer patients, nano technology can be utilized. In Dr. Jaime Ramirez's lab, we have created nanoparticles (essentially very tiny molecules). These nanoparticles, when loaded with cancer-fighting drugs, will attach solely to the cancerous cells, release the drugs within the cells, and kill them.

University of Puerto Rico - Mayagüez, Summer REU Program

Imagen de Joseph P Ulbrich

Hello all,

Welcome to my summer research blog where I'll be keeping all updated on my research adventures and other excursions throughout Puerto Rico!  This summer, I'll be performing research into discovering the characteristics of enzyme - coated Nano particles for 10 weeks researching at the University of Puerto Rico - Mayaguez, Chemical Engineering building.  This opportunity has been provided to me through a summer REU program available through Soft Matter Labs at UPRM.  After my research is completed, I plan to spend another two weeks traveling around Puerto Rico to see all those places I've won't have been able to see only on the weekends.

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