BioMINDS as Stamina

Since day 1 with BioMINDS, more than helping with the research funding, it has served as a kind of stamina shot for me. I haven’t had the chance to prepare a poster or present at JTM or any other scientific forum, but being a part of BioMINDS has made me realize I am just steps away from my own poster presentations. The thought makes me a little nervous, until I see myself momentarily a few months away from finishing my bachelor’s degree and look back at the experience I gained thanks to the research project and the impulse provoked from my participation in BioMINDS.  BioMINDS is emotionally preparing me for what I will be facing very soon as my first experience presenting research results. I am really looking forward to all the experience BioMINDS and the research project will be providing me for the remaining of my college years.

P.D. These are the only pictures I currently have on my lab work. I will be posting more pictures during this week.

Glassware cleaning with aqua regia

More glassware cleaning with aqua regia

Silver Colloid Synthesis: Adding sodium citrate

Silver Colloid Synthesis: Diluting aqueous silver nitrate

Cytosine, Guanine, Thymine, and Adenine 1000 Micromolar Solutions

Expectations and Progress

After the last blog post, I met with Dr. Rivera and my partner to discuss this semester’s goals. Because last semester only silver colloids were synthesized and adenine micromolar solutions were prepared both twice, for the time being we have decided to prepare thymine, cytosine, and guanine micromolar solutions and synthesize enough silver colloids for their Raman analyses. After completing these tasks, we will meet Dr. Rivera to discuss how the project will proceed.

Before preparing solutions, the dilution calculations corresponding to last semester’s work were revised to assure if it was possible to achieve the desired micromolar concentration required given the various nitrogenous bases’ molar weights. During the process, it was observed that the mass of the substances required for the concentrations were excessively small and were impossible to measure in an analytical balance. It was decided to follow one of the Raman Microscope technician’s indications with respect to solution concentration and increased them to 10 times the original ones. Up until now, all three solutions have been prepared and the laboratory has been equipped with all the reagents and instrumentation necessary to begin with the silver colloidal suspension’s synthesis, which will be the next lab visit’s task. After this, only the Raman analyses will be left to work on in order to finish the stipulated agenda. It is expected to be completed by the end of March, so hopefully by the next blog entry results will be available to present.

Bonjour BioMinds!

DNA Molecular Double Helix Model

Bonjour BioMinds. I am Zarielys Feliciano Santiago, third-year undergraduate Chemistry student at UPR-Mayagüez Campus and I’m very grateful to be given the opportunity to participate of BioMinds’ last semester. I will be blogging my experience while working on my undergraduate research project this spring semester 2011. Since August 2010, I have been working in Dr. Nilka Rivera’s research project in DNA Chemistry. When she introduced me the different projects she was working on, I immediately chose to work with her DNA Chemistry project because it is closely related to Toxicology, thus also pharmacological research, which is the scientific field in which I aspire to continue my professional preparation after my bachelor’s degree. Even though my work would just serve as a complement to the project’s main research area, I would introduce myself within the pharmacological research field. The project is titled “Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy for the Detection of Nucleotides, Nucleosides and Nitrogen Bases of DNA and RNA at Submicromolar Level”. Until Decemeber 2010, I worked along with Angel Torres, fellow Chemical Engineering student at the university. Silver colloidal suspensions can help improve Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS) signals for adenine, a DNA nitrogenous base. Our research laboratory work consisted of synthesizing silver colloids using two different methodologies, analyzing the SERS spectra of adenine samples with each of the colloids, and determining which of the procedures employed synthesized the colloidal suspension that best improved SERS adenine signal transmission.

Renishaw Raman Microscope

Up to the day, my experience in the research lab has been a very gratifying one. Among what I learned during the semester, I became familiarized with colloid synthesis procedures, learned how to use a UV-VIS spectrophotometer and how to prepare its analyte samples, acquired some knowledge about the use of a Raman microscope and how to prepare its analyte samples, became familiarized with the special security measures to be taken in a laboratory prepared to work with explosives (aqua regia), learned how to work with micromolar solution calculations, how to keep organized logs on everything happening in the laboratory during the experiments, and collaborated with the scientific report that was to be handed to our mentor and graded by the end of the semester. This week (February 7-11), I will be meeting with Dr. Rivera and my partner for this term to discuss our goals for the semester and our weekly availability to work together in the lab. To close this first blog entry, at the lowermost part of it, you will find a link to what my research project is mostly about. I am enthusiastically looking forward to what this new semester’s worth of research experience will provide me and will be writing about it soon.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6TGS-44FFMXM-C3&_user=10&_coverDate=12%2F31%2F1984&_rdoc=1&_fmt=high&_orig=search&_origin=search&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_searchStrId=1632046818&_rerunOrigin=google&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=4862326e8c983119529fdee4a9f6d842&searchtype=a