Shmorgisborg of Science

During my dissertation defense presentation a couple of weeks ago, I explained that one of the advantages of any fluorescence-based biological or chemical detection system would be the ability to scale down such a system to a portable and deployable size. My evidence for this was the mention of two biosensing detection systems commercialized by Research International: the Raptor and the Biohawk. Both of these systems are, for lack of a better word, awesome. Both systems use what are known as sandwich immunoassays to detect the target analytes. And both systems are capable of detecting multiple analytes simultaneously. The sandwich immunoassay used in these sensors is an antibody-based detection method in which a primary antibody specific to a target compound is adsorbed onto a glass waveguide, similar to an optical fiber. If the target compound is present in a sample, it will bind selectively to the primary antibody. After exposure to a sample, a solution containing a secondary antibody that is labeled with a fluorescent dye is flown over the waveguide. If the target compound is bound to the primary antibody, the secondary antibody will also bind to it, creating a sort of antibody-antigen-antibody sandwich (hence the name of the assay). Excitation light is then sent through the waveguide, exciting the fluorescent dye bound to the secondary antibody, indicating the presence of the target compound.

I remember learning about RI's Raptor sensor during my coursework early in my graduate studies, so it has been around for quite some time and has become a bit of a mainstay. Certainly if you'd like to learn more about either of these systems, you can check out Research International's website and read up about them. Besides plenty of reading material, there are some really nice diagrams on how the sandwich immunoassay works, as well as diagrams showing the inner workings of a fully automated biosensor. They also have some other cool detection and sampling platforms that are worth checking out if you're interested in those types of things.

And now for some news.

As if CERN hadn't made headlines enough lately (see Large Hadron Collider), they made big news last week when they announced and published the results of their recent studies on antimatter. One of two research groups working on parallel studies was able to effectively create atoms of antihydrogen, hold them in an electromagnetic field, and keep them there for nearly 200 milliseconds. Although this is a big deal, the end goal is to create and trap many more antihydrogens and to hold them for much longer periods of time so that the properties of the trapped antimatter can be thoroughly studied and examined. And so this study is a major step forward in regard to the overall objective.

And there you have it, folks. A blog update with actual substance. Been a while.

It's a Celebration!

A quick update on how things are going with the author: on Wednesday November 10th, I successfully defended my doctorate dissertation. Technically, I am not yet a doctor, as the Mizzou graduate school has not received my forms and dissertation, but I am hoping that all of the paperwork will be submitted within the next week or so. So what I'm getting at here is that if you feel like calling me Dr. Stringer, I would be comfortable with that.

So what's next, you ask? That's still a little up in the air. I was interviewed by a company that I really liked, but did not get the job. Instead, I will likely take a post-doc position and stay here in Columbia. It's all worked out pretty well considering I've grown to like Columbia quite a lot. In addition, the post-doc position will allow me to work on some unfinished research that I was just beginning as I was writing my dissertation.

For now, I'm going to have to leave it at that. I'll be updating soon with some information on some very cool, already-on-the-market biosensing systems that I discussed briefly during my defense. Until then, the doctor is on-call.

Curiosity Didn't Kill the Cat, But It Could if It Wanted To

Oh wow. I can't believe it's been over a month since I've updated this thing. But I guess that's how it goes when you're preparing for a final defense and trying to pin down a job for after graduation. Add my current position as live-in babysitter and sprinkle in a little part-time work in the lab getting a pilot study going, and you've got a daily schedule that leaves very little room for blogging.

For those who are interested, my final defense will be November 10th at 10:00am in room 259 of the Agriculture Engineering Building. The defense presentation will be public, so come by if you'd like.

Now for my main reason for creating this post: as a follower of NASA's Twitter feed, I was informed of this live video of the assembly of the next generation Mars rover, called Curiosity. I believe that the folks you see working in the clean room are currently assembling the robotic arm of the rover at the time of posting this. If you're getting to this post, and therefore the link, much later than when this update was posted, I'm not sure what you'll see. But it appears as though you'll find some sort of rover assembly at that URL for quite some time. Anyways, it's pretty awesome, so I recommend checking it out.

Posting will probably continue to be intermittent (or nonexistent) for at least the next week and a half or so. I will try to begin adding regular updates after my defense, but it will be crunch time for getting a job and moving, so we'll see how it goes. Until next time, enjoy watching assembly of the Mars rover...or whatever else happens to be at that particular URL when you click the link.