Assistant Professor of Physics Ben Evans and three undergraduate researchers are presenting their research at the annual meeting of the Biophysical Society in San Diego, which runs from Feb. 25-29.
With more than 6,000 research scientists in attendance each year, the annual meeting of the Biophysical Society is the largest gathering of biophysicists in the world.
The students’ work highlights unique contributions to the medical and biological sciences stemming from tools and techniques derived from the discipline of physics.
Michael Berg (junior, biology) will be presenting “Magnetically actuated artificial cilia as microfluidic mixers,” in which he develops a new device for mixing and pumping fluids at the microscale. Micro-scaled fluidic systems have enjoyed increasing popularity with the proliferation of hand-held medical diagnostic devices, such as diabetic testing equipment.
Alison Deatsch (junior, physics) will be presenting “Silicone-based magnetic microspheres for magnetic hyperthermia therapeutics,” in which she develops biocompatible silicone microspheres which may be remotely heated with a magnetic field. In principle, these spheres may be injected into a patient, localized at the site of a malignant tumor, and heated remotely to kill cancerous cells.
Julie Ronecker (junior, biochemistry) will be presenting “A novel silicone magnetic microsphere for ligand-targeted drug delivery,” in which she explores a biochemical technique for targeting cancer cells with drug-carrying microspheres. Delivering a drug – such as a chemotherapeutic agent – directly to malignant cells rather than to the entire body will allow medical professionals to deliver a larger dose to a tumor while reducing undesirable side effects.
Ben Evans (assistant professor, physics) will be presenting “High permeability silicone-based magnetic microspheres for microscale force spectroscopy,” in which he describes the development of a highly-magnetic silicone microsphere which may be used to apply forces at the cellular level. These spheres may be used to separate populations of cells or remove targeted chemicals from solution.
The work was supported by the Lumen Prize program and the Office of Undergraduate Research.