A group of students and their professor are working together in an undergraduate research program in DNA nanotechnology funded by the National Science Foundation. They are the Nanostars of this program, students who work together on projects regarding using the tools of biology to build materials of the future.
“Our goals are synthetic biology,” said Dr. Jillian Blatti, the Principal Investigator of the program. “My role is education and workforce development, to provide a training program for undergraduate students to learn the skills of synthetic biology. We have authentic research projects that my collaborators and I design.”
Blatti and her collaborators—Elisa Franco at UCLA, Deborah Fygenson at UCSB and Paul Rothemund at Caltech—design open-ended explorations in the training program, allowing their students to make discoveries.
Over the summer the group has worked together on various experiments, some being uploaded to their YouTube channel. Their synthetic biology research techniques got them involved in a bootcamp at Franco’s Dynamic Nucleic Acid Systems lab at the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering, where they got one week experience in UCLA’s bioengineering lab and learned from graduate students, postdocs and professors.
There, the Nanostars learned techniques in synthetic biology, setting up biochemical reactions and designing experiments forming DNA condensates, quantifying DNA and measuring enzyme activity.
“The idea is to fabricate materials of the future using DNA,” said Blatti.
After finishing their time at UCLA, the Nanostars would be able to apply their new skills in research at PCC.
“It’s been really nice to guide them in the lab all summer. We’ve been working for seven weeks total,” Blatti said. “I’m really proud of the team. They’ve done fantastic work. And, you know, this is all kind of under the umbrella of equity in STEM education, right? Providing access to cool science for everyone.”
The team has many accomplishments throughout the years: Reina Salman won the National Council for Undergraduate Research (NCUR) Engineering Research Video Challenge Award this year. Celina Yu won the prestigious Barry Goldwater scholarship in 2023. Salman, Eliana Safar and Vanessa Gonzalez won first place at the Natural Sciences Division Poster Sessions in 2023 and 2024. Blatti was a Distinguished Woman in Science at Stanford University in 2023 for her work leading PCC students in undergraduate research and having a positive impact on underrepresented students, contributing to equity in STEM education and diversity in the STEM workforce.
“My goals are to gain more research, technical, and research skills, specifically biology research, and to also get successful results in the experiments that we’ve been doing,” said PCC student Gracious Mhlanga.
Meanwhile PCC students Cynthia Khosravian and Megan Rivera, with alumna Eliana Safar want to focus their research for the purpose of localizing medicine.
“With our projects our hope was to hopefully in the future we could use our research in the field of either medicine or just have different applications for it,” said Khosravian.
“In this program, I want to help achieve the larger goal of localizing drug delivery,” said Rivera. “Personally, my goal of entering this program and finishing it was to learn more about the fields that I’m interested in, because, you know, I’m just starting off college and research has always been an interest to me. And I’ve definitely learned a lot about that in my time here, and also just learn what it is like and what it means to be a scientist.”
“I would say the big picture goal for our research is to localize applications for this,” said Safar. “It has really big applications normally in biology and research fields about the structures in localized chemical reactions, but also in health aspects, shares in medicine and the pharmacy industry.”
Fellow alumna Emily Terkazaryan transferred to UCLA, and now hopes to expand her knowledge and growth with her experience from Nanostars.
“At PCC, my major was bio biology, and now at UCLA, it’s going to be molecular, cell and developmental biology,” said Terkazaryan. “My goals are mostly based on keeping going and exploring more opportunities in the field of research trying to get more opportunities like this one specifically in this program and going forward. I am excited to talk about what we’ve done during this program and other events, talking about our research.”
The Nanostars will remember their program fondly, and have learned more about themselves and each other.
“I would say that I’m someone who really enjoys learning about science and about research and how it applies to the real world,” said Returning PCC Student Gracious Mhlanga.
Whether at PCC or beyond, the Nanostars can integrate their experiences into the rest of their lives.
“I think it’s definitely been very eye-opening,” said Khosravian. “With this type of project a lot of us came from different backgrounds. I think we were really able to help each other, build each other’s knowledge base so that we could all kind of be at the same level.”
Students can become Nanostars themselves through enrolling in PCC’s STEM courses and filling out an application. Blatti’s courses provide students access to the science associated with the Nanostars’ research and give students the opportunity to engage with their experiments.
Written by Christopher Galicia for Pasadena City College; used with permission. Find the original article here.
Learn more about the Nanostar’s poster presentations here: Posters of Nanostar Research Break Down the Hard Science Behind Research Breakthroughs
Founded in 1978, the Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR) focuses on providing high-quality and collaborative undergraduate research, scholarly, and creative activity. Among the many activities and networking opportunities that CUR provides, the organization also offers support for the professional growth of faculty and administrators through expert-designed institutes, conferences, and a wide-range of volunteer positions. The CUR community, made up of nearly 700 institutions and 13,000 individuals, continues to provide a platform for discussion and other resources related to mentoring, connecting, and creating relationships centered around undergraduate research. CUR’s advocacy efforts are also a large portion of its work as they strive to strengthen support for undergraduate research. Its continued growth in connections with representatives, private foundations, government agencies, and campuses world-wide provides value to its members and gives voice to undergraduate research. CUR is committed to inclusivity and diversity in all of its activities and our community.
CUR focuses on giving a voice to undergraduate research with learning through doing. It provides connections to a multitude of campuses and government agencies, all while promoting networking and professional growth to its community.
