While Spinach aptamers are the most prevalent, our current research focuses on determining an efficient way to connect Mango aptamers with another aptamer to create a biosensor and to work out an effective method to separate out sequences that bind to TO1-Biotin. So why bother with Mango? Read and find out! Spinach Aptamer The Spinach... Continue Reading →
Why Aren’t Aptamers Mainstream?
Aptamers are not considered a conventional technique. Aptamer selection technology was developed about a quarter of a century ago. In the beginning, aptamers were immediately thought to be a revolutionary start into solving many problems associated with the diagnostics and the therapy of diseases. However, multiple attempts to use aptamers in practice generally have been less... Continue Reading →
So… What is actually happening in lab?
Hey, I am Natalie and I am Vaani and we are students in the First Year Innovation and Research Experience at the University of Maryland, College Park. I am Natalie Acker and I am a biology major, thinking about a focus in genetics or microbiology. With that major, I plan to be a scientific researcher,... Continue Reading →
Failure is Success in Progress
Time for some motivation!---hopefully, you're inspired. In a previous blog post, Jonathan and Yisrael gave advice on the importance of being positive in research. In this post, we (Benedicte and Semira) will elaborate on that. Research requires patience--a lot of it. But doing research also teaches you how to be patient. There are risk and uncertainty... Continue Reading →
The Summer of Science
This past summer, we were very fortunate to participate in the FIRE Summer Fellowship Program. We worked with six other rising sophomores and our Research Educator, Dr. Spirito, on continuing our projects from the spring. Our project focused on using the SELEX process to find RNA molecules that bind strongly to a target protein. We... Continue Reading →
Advice for Undergraduates Who Wish to do Research
Hey everyone, this is Jonathan and Yisrael and we're here to talk to you about performing research as an undergraduate student. We ourselves are Sophomores at the University of Maryland, College Park, and we've been privileged to take classes in the FIRE program at UMD. FIRE was made to address an observation that's been made... Continue Reading →
An Insight to the Research Conducted by the Engineering Biosensors Team at the University of Maryland
Welcome to Our Lab Hello everyone, this is Chih Hao Wu and Anuj Apte from the University of Maryland! The FIRE (First Year Innovation and Research Experience) Engineering Biosensors group is a new research stream here at the University of Maryland and we already have 6 aptamer-related projects in the making. Here on this post, Anuj... Continue Reading →
Introducing our blog!
This blog is a collaboration between University of Maryland's FIRE Engineering Biosensors Research Stream and University of Texas Austin's FRI Aptamer Research Stream. Student researchers in our labs will take turns posting over the coming months on various topics ranging from: the research happening in our labs, day-to-day lab life, and the latest in aptamer and... Continue Reading →