NEWS
SyBBURE Student, Ben Nguyen wins first place poster award at AIChE 2019
Chuong (Ben) Nguyen, a senior studying Chemical Engineering with minors in chemistry and scientific computing from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, won First Place in Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology Division I at the annual meeting of American Institute of Chemical Engineers 2019. His project title is Sustained & Localized Immunomodulation with Hydrogel-Polymer Nanoparticle Composites and his faculty advisor is John Wilson. Congratulations Ben!
Research team sorts out drug screen false positive results
Two SyBBURE alumni, Jennifer Colby, PhD, assistant professor of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and her husband, Jake Hughey, PhD, assistant professor of Biomedical Informatics and Biological Sciences at VUMC identified 13 previously unknown drug compounds that cause false positives screenings for amphetamines, buprenorphine (an opioid), cannabinoids and methadone in urine testing. The study won the Academy Distinguished Abstract Award from the American Association for Clinical Chemistry. Read more here, an article by Paul Govern.
Vigilante Innovation Paper and Website Launch
We have some very exciting news to share!
We have officially launched vigilanteinnovation.com, an online resource for anyone to learn about the design process, and go from problem to prototype no matter their interests!
Our students have customized and used this design process in their team-based design projects (check out some of their results on our design page!), and we are so excited to share these tools and inspire others to take innovation and creative problem-solving into their own hands, in any problem space.
Our manuscript detailing the Vigilante Innovation process and findings has been accepted to the International Journal of STEM Education.
Check out the guide, and go forth and innovate!
SyBBURE Students Present at the 2019 Vanderbilt Undergraduate Research Fair
Last Thursday (September 19, 2019), 40 SyBBURE students presented their research at Vanderbilt’s sixth annual undergraduate research fair. This is just one of the opportunities SyBBURE students take to practice their scientific communication skills, network professionally, and receive feedback on their work.
SyBBURE student Danielle presenting her poster at the 2019 Vanderbilt Undergraduate Research Fair
See the projects our students presented on our students page!
Read more about the 2019 Vanderbilt Undergraduate Research Fair: Sixth annual undergraduate research fair showcases immersion and draws record number of participants
Scientific Output Update: Wills Dunham
Wills Dunham’s first author paper titled CYP2D6 genotype-guided metoprolol therapy in cardiac surgery patients: Rationale and design of the Pharmacogenetic-guided Metoprolol Management for Postoperative Atrial Fibrillation in Cardiac Surgery (PREEMPTIVE) Pilot study was published in the Journal of Cardiothoracic and Vascular Anesthesia today. Check it out here.
Scientific Output Update: Kris Quah
Kris Quah’s first author paper titled Simultaneous multislice MRI thermometry with a single coil using incoherent blipped‐controlled aliasing was published today in Magnetic Resonance in Medicine. Check it out here.
SyBBURE Student Highlights: Puxin Xuanyuan
Our very own Puxin Xuanyuan was recently featured on the Vanderbilt YouTube channel and news website in a story about her research and experience with SyBBURE! Watch the video:
It’s amazing to see our students getting the opportunity to share their experiences with the Vanderbilt community and beyond.
If you’re interested in learning more about our students’ research, check out our students page!
Read the full story about Puxin by Amy Wolf: ‘Research squad' propels student during two summer immersions’
Fun: Saying Goodbye to the Class of 2019 the Only Way We Know How
…with food, weird games, tree climbing, and friends. To our seniors in the class of 2019, we wish you the best!
SyBBURE Student Highlights: Jad El Harake
Jad El Harake embodies the spirit of SyBBURE. He is goofy, loves science, and was crazy enough to take a year of organic chemistry “for fun.” He is the big brother of SyBBURE. He is always available to help out, whether it’s reassuring a nervous student new to research and SyBBURE, or making a long day much better with one of his absurd jokes. If he has one weakness, it’s that he can easily be peer pressured to jump off a cliff because all his friends did!
Jad has a natural empathy and a knack for mentorship. As a sophomore, he became a VUceptor and an RA. He chose to do these leadership roles because he wanted to give back to Vanderbilt: “I have had an incredible 4 years at Vanderbilt full of amazing opportunities. I wanted to do my share to help other students adjust to college and learn to love Vanderbilt like I did.” His ability to collaborate with people and make them feel at ease around him will carry him far as a scientist.
In the lab, Jad is an ultrasound pro! His work involves simulating ultrasound on a computer, taking the results from the simulation, and translating it to the physical world. He improved his programming and critical thinking skills. His project aimed to improve how we focus ultrasonic beams through the skull. Rather than use a probe to image, ultrasound can focus like sunlight through a magnifying glass to heat up tissue or stimulate neurons in a confined area of the brain. So, surgery isn’t required to move the skull out of the way! Unfortunately, the skull distorts the beam and make it difficult to affect only a small region of the brain. Jad wrote a simulation that used a CT scan of a skull to predict how it would distort the focused ultrasound and correct those distortions. The results of the simulation were then passed to an actual probe to target the needed region of the brain with greater accuracy.
Jad’s advice for students who are interested in research is to get used to failure:
“Research is a lot more failure than success. Everything takes longer than you think because you always run into more problems than you think you will. Murphy’s Law is real! You have to be able to learn and grow from your failures. Grad students and PIs know that better than anyone, so don’t be afraid to disappoint them. Be aware that goals need to change as things come up. Change your goals and don’t chase a goal you can’t achieve yet.”
Jad can conquer the world. He is now a biomedical engineering graduate student at Columbia University, and we are so proud of him and all of his hard work!
About mentor Charles Caksey: Dr. Charles Caskey is a professor of Radiology and Biomedical Engineering at Vanderbilt who studies the diagnostic and therapeutic uses of ultrasound. He is especially interested in image-guided therapy applications where therapeutic ultrasound is guided by ultrasonic imaging or combined with another imaging modality, such as MRI. Jad had a great experience in the Caskey Lab thanks to the mentorship and support of not only Dr. Caskey, but the other members of the lab (graduate and undergraduate students) as well.
Written by: Danielle Liu, Class of 2020