From his postdoctoral work at Santa Barbara, Dr. Menegatti has filed a new patent.  The field of drug delivery continues to get closer to realistic, usable materials with synergistic release schedules, and our lab is proud of its contributions.  Congrats, Dr. Menegatti!

Check out his patent here.

Last week, The Nonwovens Institute (NWI) announced that it will be funding research in our lab focused on developing antimicrobial textiles.  These next generation nonwovens will be developed in our lab using the latest technologies and materials.  We look forward to working more closely with NWI and generating great data and products.

In addition, we are proud to announce that the Kenan Institute for Engineering, Technology, and Science (KIETS) is funding research on engineering large blood vessel networks.  With our history of working with blood proteins and human based materials, our lab is excited to move to this exciting new realm of research.

Thanks to all who made this possible, and stay tuned to hear more about the exciting developments these projects turn up!

The Menegatti Lab has taken 3 new graduate students into its ranks this semester.  They’ll all be working on diverse projects in separations and drug delivery using hot new materials and recently discovered peptide sequences.

So say hello to Raphael Prodromou, Kevin Day, and Srivatsan Ramesh (pictured left to right).

John Schneible has won the GAANN Fellowship for graduate students in biotechnology who have demonstrated interest and commitment towards furthering higher education through research.  He was nominated and competed against other students to win the award and become a GANN Fellow.

The GAANN Fellowship is sponsored by the Department of Education, and the Biotechnology Center of North Carolina implements the molecular biotechnology section of the fellowhip.  The GAANN committee seeks to foster the next generation of scientists into better researchers, teachers, and mentors.  We’re already sure John’s well on his way to that goal!

Congratulations to John Schneible, GAANN Fellow!

Congratulations to Kaitlyn Bacon, who passed her preliminary exam.  She is now a full PhD candidate and one big step closer to getting her degree.  Her work will be featured here as it continues to be developed.

Best wishes to Kaitlyn, and good luck on her continued research!

Sensus, an international, undergraduate competition to sense biomolecules, held its annual contest on September 8th and 9th.  The SenseNC team had three representatives that also perform research in the BioPep labs who went to the Netherlands to represent the team.  From left to right, Brendan Turner, Alice DiFazio, and Calvin Shanahan all had a great time and showed off the work of the team.

Also cool, the SenseNC team was the only – and the first – team from the US to compete, and thus also the first team to place in several categories!  Next year we’ll be even better!

Congrats to SenseNC, the SensUs competition, and all the potential patients who may be helped through the technologies developed.

Dr. Menegatti’s work in Santa Barbara continues to have far reaching effects, as seen in the recent publication “A hyaluronic acid conjugate engineered to synergistically and sequentially deliver gemcitabine and doxorubicin to treat triple negative breast cancer” in the Journal of Controlled Release.  Some of the ideas presented in this paper continue to inform our work and push the boundaries of drug delivery.

Congrats to Dr. Menegatti!

Dr. Menegatti has been awarded a research grant by the National Science Foundation to work on a stem cell distillery that can gently separate desired from undesired cells based on therapeutic potential.  Beyond the potential benefits to American healthcare that this research could reap, this grant will help grow our lab by allowing him to expand the breadth of his projects and, in the process, support more students, postdocs, and undergraduate researchers.

These grants are highly competitive, awarded only to a small percentage of applicants, and are provided with the goal of having a broad impact on both the researcher and on the progress of human technology.  Our lab’s focus on the cutting edge of drug delivery, chemistry, and bioseparations promise to bring new innovations to the table and advance scientific and engineering practices for the coming century.

To learn more about the NSF, please visit their website.  To learn more about our upcoming projcet, feel free to read the award page for grant number 1743404.

Radina Lilova, a senior in Chemical Engineering, has been awarded an NC State Undergraduate Research Grant from the Office of Undergraduate Research.  This grant will allow her to conduct research that is essential to our lab and will help her develop her skills as a scientist.

Congrats, Radina!