Public talk at UVA Forward

“A Glimpse into the Chemistry of the Immune System”

It was a special honor to be invited to speak to UVA staff members at their annual professional development event in June 2018. Although the event was meant to inspire the attendees, in the end it was just as inspiring for me! Sharing our lab’s vision, goals, and progress with people from mostly non-science backgrounds, many of whom provide the daily support that make it possible, was a special privilege and a touching reminder of why I am here.

Welcome Gianna Haskin from Xavier University

We are thrilled to have Gianna Haskin, a rising second year student at Xavier University of Louisiana, join us for summer research this summer.  She is participating in the First Year Research Experience (FYRE) program, a nationwide program that sponsors first-time research experiences after the first year of college.  Gianna is working on pioneering methods for long term culture of lymph node slices!  She has done a great job in her first month, and we look forward to seeing what she achieves by the end of the summer.

Good Luck to Drake, Ben and Kristen!

As UVA begins to prepare for Final Exercises we want to thank all our graduating undergrads for all their hard work over the past years.  Many of them have been part of the lab since the first summer and they have helped shape the lab and develop many of our novel procedures.  They have done excellent work and we wish them the best of luck as they move forward in their scientific careers. 

We will miss you all but look forward to seeing your future accomplishments.

Alyssa M. and Rebecca Y. win summer research fellowships

Congratulations to 1st-year student Alyssa Montalbine and 2nd-year student Rebecca Yoo, who each won competitive undergraduate research fellowships to fund their work in the lab this summer!  Alyssa received a NanoSTAR fellowship for her work on a scaffold for an artificial lymph node, and Rebecca received a Department of Chemistry fellowship and a College Science Scholars award for her work testing the effects of fluid flow on lymph node tissue.  We are excited to have them here with us this summer!

Meg takes top honor at 3rd year poster session

We are so proud of Meg Catterton for receiving the award of "Best Poster" at the annual 3rd-year PhD student Poster Session in the Department of Chemistry.  Meg presented her work on a device for local stimulation of tissue slices with a movable microfluidic port.  Following the poster session, she had the opportunity to present her work to the entire department in a celebratory seminar.  Great job Meg!  Look for her paper coming soon.

Congratulations also to the 2nd and 3rd place winners of a great poster session!

• 1st Place: Meg Catterton (Pompano lab)
• 2nd Place: Qian Liang (Cafiso lab)
• 3rd Place: Nicole Swope (Columbus lab) & Robert D'Ippolito (Hunt Lab)

Image credits:  Dr. Jim Demas

Pompano and Rutkowski awarded collaborative research grant

We are honored that the Pompano lab and Rutkowski lab were awarded a 2018 Collaborative Research Project Award in the amount of $75,000 from the Carter Immunology Center.  According to the program announcement,

The goal of this award is to increase the level of collaborative activity among members of the Carter Immunology Center; bring together individuals and laboratories with complementary skills and perspectives; encourage the development of multi-investigator awards, which generally have higher budgets and more comprehensive scope of research activities; and to drive high quality science and encourage its translation into treatments for disease. 

We are excited to begin work on a new model of tumor immunity for this project!  This award was generously funded by the Carter Foundation. 

Austin advances to PhD candidacy

Congratulations to Austin for successfully completing his PhD candidacy exam in February!  We look forward to seeing all you accomplish.

Celebration after PhD qualifying exams were over! 

Photo credit:  Prof. Jim Demas

NIH funds the Pompano lab!

Huge news for our research:  The NIH's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) has awarded our lab more than $1.4 million over five years to fund our efforts to create a new experimental model of the immune system.  By combining live lymph node tissue and microfluidic technology, we will be able to look closely that the events that happen locally inside the tissue.  This work will inform the development of new anti-inflammatory immunotherapies. 

Many thanks to the NIH NIAID for their support, and to Prof. John Lukens for collaborating with us on this project. 

Charlottesville High School visits for science-&-art field trip

On November 29, we were lucky to host Charlottesville High School for the first ever CHS-UVA Science-and-Art field trip to the Department of Chemistry!  Twenty-nine students from AP Chemistry, Art I, and Honors Studio Art came to visit for tours of the science labs, presentations from graduate students, and a unique art activity designed by Ms. Rachel McLaughlin, art teacher from CHS.  The art featured surrealist portraits, where faces were recombined on puzzle pieces, to convey the idea of "organ-on-chip":  fabricating organs from molecules and cells and rearranging their pieces in the chemistry lab.

"One thing that I really enjoyed was being able to see the two microscopes in the labs we visited. In each one, we were able to see cells up close and that is something I've never seen. It was a fun and eye-opening experience. Another thing that was really cool was hearing about the organ on a chip because it’s such an amazing idea!" -- A. M., 10th grade

"I'm really interested in both chemistry and art so being able to see how those two intersect was really cool for me. Also being able to see the applications of some of the ideas we talk about in art class being able to be used in medical advancements through chemistry is inspiring." -- S. L., 11th grade

Many thanks to CHS teachers Rachel McLaughlin (art), Rhoda Baker (chemistry), and Sherry Hodges (chemistry) for coming and bringing their students!  Also, the tours and talks would not have been possible without Charles Richardson from Gahlmann lab, Mimi Shin from the Venton lab, Nathan Swami from the Swami lab, and Lauren Russell from the Lampe lab.

We are grateful to the Department of Chemistry for their support of this event.

Pompano group at MicroTAS

We are proud that Meg Catterton and Sangjo Shim both presented posters to the international audience MicroTAS 2017 in Savannah, Georgia this year.  Their work was well received.  We enjoyed talking with fellow microfluidics researchers from all over the world, and catching up with former Ismaglov lab members!

Sangjo presents his work.

Meg presents her work.

Beautiful Savannah.

View of the conference center from the bridge over the nearby river.

Savannah is a busy harbor!

We saw it up close during the boat cruise.

MicroTAS 2017!