2024
Attendance at SACNAS NDiSTEM 2024
October 2024 - Jael Chavez attended the SACNAS National Diversity in STEM Conference in Phoenix and presented his research on lipid nanoparticle payload capacity.
Attendance at BMES 2024
October 2024 - Dr. Poon, Deepali Bisht, and Denice Peter Rout attended the 2024 Biomedical Engineering Society Meeting in Baltimore. Deepali and Denice presented their research posters on siRNA/mRNA lipid nanoparticle co-formulations and high-throughput lipid nanoparticle synthesis.
Attendance at NIH Meeting
October 2024 - Dr. Poon presented the lab's research at the Building Bridges Across NIH and the Broader Engineering Community Meeting at the NIH Bethesda Campus.
Publication in ACS Omega
September 2024 - Dr. Poon published an original research article in the journal ACS Omega in collaboration with Prof. Katja Michael, Igor Almeida, and Rosa Maldonado's groups entitled "Selective Transfection of a Transferrin Receptor-Expressing Cell Line with DNA–Lipid Nanoparticles"
Attendance at SfB Southwest Regional Symposium
September 2024 - Dr. Poon, Mario Mata Corral, and Hannia Balcorta attended the 2024 Society for Biomaterials Southwest Regional Symposium in Austin. Mario and Hannia presented their research posters on developing chemical tags for LNP tracking in 2D and 3D imaging.
New Lab Members - Fall 2024
September 2024 - DESTINATION Lab welcomes new and returning lab members: Che Garcia (MS BME), Melissa Espinoza (COURI MERTIUS), Estefania Mireles Flores (COURI MERITUS), and Xiomara Aguirre (OCSEO UGRA).
DESTINATION Lab 2nd Anniversary
August 2024 - DESTINATION Lab celebrated its 2-year anniversary
Attendance at NanoHub FAIR Workshop
August 2024 - Our BME PhD student Denice Peter Rout attended the NanoHub FAIR Workshop at Purdue University for a hands-on experience with implementing FAIR workflows in nanomaterials science and engineering.
Presentations at COURI Summer Symposium 2024
August 2024 - Our undergrad COURI SURPASS students Melissa and Estefania for presented their summer research work on LNP high-throughput synthesis and screening at the COURI Summer Symposium
Attendance at NSF FAIR Workshop
July 2024 - Our BME PhD student Denice Peter Rout attended the NSF FAIR Workshop in Washington DC for improving the findability, accessibility, interoperability, and reusability of scientific information in materials science and engineering.
ChimeraX Workshop at UTEP College of Science
July 2024 - Dr. Poon and Deepali Bisht helped led the ChimeraX workshop hosted by UTEP College of Science and organized by Prof. Mahesh Narayan.
Attendance at NIH All of Us Faculty Summit
May 2024 - Dr. Poon attended the NIH All of Us Faculty Summit 2024, hosted by Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. As part of the program, he joins an interdisplinary research team to investigate the behavioral, environmental, and biological factors on lung cancer health disparities using the All of Us database.
MMBME Annual Research Awards
May 2024 - 4 students from the DESTINATION lab are awarded research awards at the MMBME Annual Banquet - undergraduate RAs Damian and Hannia, and graduate students Veronica and Mario.
MS MME Thesis Defense
May 2024 - Our MS MME student Veronica Contreras successfully defended her thesis - "Effect of Patient-specific Blood Biomarkers on Nanoparticle-cell Interactions" with Drs. Joddar and Ma as committee members.
TRC4 Grant Awarded
April 2024 - Dr. Poon is awarded an Early Career Mentored Grant from the TRC4 Initiative - "Nanoparticle-Enabled Immunomodulation for Sepsis Prevention in Trauma and Combat Casualty"
Attendance at CryoEM Train the Trainer Workshop
April 2024 - Dr. Poon attended the 2nd CryoEM Train the Trainer Workshop hosted by Harvard Medical School and funded by NIGMS IPERT Program.
New Opentrons Flex Automated Liquid Handler
April 2024 - The new Opentrons Flex automated liquid handler has been installed in DESTINATION Lab
NIH R21 Grant Awarded
March 2024 - DESTINATION lab (co-I) will work with Prof. Katja Michael (PI), Prof. Igor Almeida (co-I) and Prof. Rosa Maldonado (co-I) on an awarded NIH R21 grant - "A novel gene-based immunotherapy inducing melanoma destruction"
Publication in ACS Applied Bio Materials
January 2024 - Hannia Balcorta, Veronica Contreras, Deepali Bisht, and Dr. Poon co-authored a review article in the journal ACS Applied Bio Materials entitled "Nucleic acid delivery nanotechnologies for in vivo cell programming"
