The Hecht Fellowship was established by Professor Sidney Hecht whose mid-career spanned 28 highly prolific and influential years in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Virginia. The Hecht Fellowship secures one full year of living support with a $2000 additional award as well as the standard healthcare and tuition & fees support. It goes to a single student each year based on excellence in their graduate studies and research. Congratulations Sophie!! This is well deserved.
New paper: Photopatterned 3D cultures in a chip
We are delighted that Jennifer Ortiz-Cardenas’s thesis work is now published in Organs-on-a-chip! Jenn established a method to micropattern cell-laden 3D cultures on a microfluidic chip, with resolution as good as 100-micron. She established everything from how to design and fabricate the PDMS chamber to avoid catching bubbles or patterning microcracks in the gel, to choosing what light source would provide the required wavelength, intensity, and columnation, to rigorously comparing the properties of two types of biomaterials in terms of patterning, and carefully establishing the capabilities and limitations of biocompatibility of this system with primary lymphocytes. Read the paper here! https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666102022000040
Ovi is off to Intel!
Yesterday we bid a fond farewell to postdoctoral scholar Amirus (Ovi) Saleheen, PhD. He has been a big contributor to our lymph-node chip project since arriving in fall 2020. He’s a whiz at microfabrication and the driving force behind some cool new technology that will be published soon. Now, he will be taking those skills to an exciting new position at Intel!
Congrats Ovi, we will miss you!
New paper: Magnetic impeller pump for organs-on-chip
Congratulations to Sophie Cook and co-author Hannah Musgrove for their paper now available online before print in Lab on a Chip! Sophie invented a creative impeller pump design for in-line recirculaton of media through on-chip cultures and organs-on-chip. The pump does not require any tubing or external pumps, just a magnetic stirring platform that easily fits in the incubator without heating it up. This was an exciting collaboration with Prof. Amy Throckmorton of Drexel University, who conducted advanced fluid dynamic simulations to better understand and predict the fluid flow around the pump and how it controlled flow through the channels.
This pump lays the groundwork for recirculating flow control in long-term cultures and multi-tissue cultures. Sophie and Hannah showed that it was mechanically compatible with recirculating of lymphocytes, and when 3D printed in the right resin, could be used to circulate model lymphocytes overnight.
Prof. Pompano gives invited talk at Drexel IMES
It was an honor for Dr. Pompano to speak in the 3rd Annual Immune Modulation & Engineering Symposium, Dec 9-10, 2021 . All of the talks and discussions during panels were insightful and thought-provoking. With over 375 participants, many of whom were students from around the world, this was a special opportunity for the immune-engineering community to come together virtually.
This workshop was generously subsidized by the National Institutes of Health.
Prof. Pompano co-organizes New Faces in Chemistry Workshop
In July and August, 2021, the UVA Department of Chemistry faculty mobilized to put together a brand new, virtual workshop for future faculty in the chemical sciences, titled New Faces in Chemistry: A Future Faculty Workshop. Co-organized by Prof. Rebecca Pompano and Prof. Marcos Pires, the 5-day workshop sought to level the playing field for future faculty applicants from diverse backgrounds. Recognizing that the application process is opaque to many trainees, and that this can reduce the diversity of the application pool for highly competitive faculty positions, we established this workshop to share critical information on making a competitive faculty job application. The workshop was open to all, and was targeted it especially to those from underrepresented backgrounds (women, URM, first-gen, LGBTQ, and self-identified diversity). Approximately 50 participants attended the workshop each day from across the USA and around the world.
Faculty from across the entire Chemistry department pitched in to share their advice, expertise, and tips, on topics including: how to choose what positions to apply to; preparation of a strong cover letter, CV, research statement, diversity statement, and teaching statement; planning to fund your lab via grant writing; and preparation for strong interview and negotiation of startup.
We were fortunate to draw on the depth of resources previously created by the UVA PhD Plus program, provided by Sonali Mujamdar, PhD.
Next, in Phase II of the workshop that commenced in August, Chemistry faculty are volunteering their time to provide 1-on-1 feedback for participants on elements of their faculty job application. Approximately half of the workshop participants signed up for Phase II of the workshop. Feedback from this program has been very positive.
New Faces in Chemistry : A Future Faculty Workshop
July 12 – 16, 2021
Virtually at the Univ of Virginia
We hope to see many of our participants go on to exciting faculty careers across the country, and perhaps even here at UVA one day!
Parris Anbaei wins 3rd place in Chemistry Rising 5th year Poster session
Big congratulations to Parris for her wonderful presentation! Good job also to Sophie Cook and Jon Zatorski for their excellent presentations in the 4th year session!
Sophie Cook named a Presidential Fellowship for Collaborative Neuroscience
This award will enable exciting work to study brain immunity in collaboration with Prof. Tajie Harris in the School of Medicine, as well as unique career development opportunities!
Prof. Pompano speaks at PhD+ STEM Future Faculty
On July 26, Prof. Pompano had the honor of speaking with UVA students and postdocs who are exploring potential careers as faculty members in the PhD+ STEM Future Faculty series, organized by Dr. Sonali Majumdar. She shared her experiences and advice regarding lab startup packages and managing the finances of a successful laboratory. Running a lab is like running a small business, after all!
Congratulations Dr. Catterton and Dr. Ortiz-Cárdenas
Big congratulations to our two newest PhD graduates, Dr. Megan Catterton and Dr. Jennifer Ortiz-Cádenas.
Meg defended in April 2021 and graduated in the spring ceremony over Zoom!
Jennifer defended in July 2021 and graduates in summer term!
They are both off to exciting new careers this fall. We are so proud of them both and will miss them.
