[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”3.14″ background_image=”https:\/\/magazine.mcs.cmu.edu\/chemistry\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/04\/2019_initiator_cabana.jpg” background_position=”top_center” custom_padding=”6px|0px|215px|0px|false|false”][et_pb_row custom_padding=”0|0px|0|0px|false|false” _builder_version=”3.14″][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”3.14″ parallax=”off” parallax_method=”on”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.14″]![\"Student-Notes\"](\"https:\/\/magazine.mcs.cmu.edu\/chemistry\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/05\/Student-Notes.png\")
[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row custom_padding=”182px|0px|27px|0px|false|false” _builder_version=”3.14″][et_pb_column type=”1_2″ _builder_version=”3.14″ parallax=”off” parallax_method=”on”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.14″ header_font=”|||on|||||” header_text_color=”#ffffff” header_4_font=”||||||||” header_4_text_color=”#ffffff”]<\/p>\n
[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_2″ _builder_version=”3.14″ parallax=”off” parallax_method=”on”][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”3.14″ custom_padding=”28px|0px|29px|0px|false|false”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”3.14″][et_pb_column type=”1_2″ _builder_version=”3.14″ parallax=”off” parallax_method=”on”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.14″]W<\/span>hen Christina Cabana found out she was awarded the Gates Cambridge Scholarship, she rushed to tell her parents, forgetting that they were on a plane at the time and had to wait almost six hours to share the good news.<\/p>\n \u201cI got ahold of them as soon as they touched down. My mom was so excited and started crying,\u201d said Cabana, a recent chemistry and science and humanities scholars graduate. \u201cAll of a sudden, I heard everyone on the plane ask her if she was okay \u2014 they thought she was hyperventilating!\u201d<\/p>\n Established in 2000 by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Gates Cambridge Scholarship fully funds awardees\u2019 postgraduate study at the University of Cambridge for the duration of their degree.<\/p>\n After graduating in May 2018, Cabana headed to England to pursue a one-year Masters of Philosophy in Chemistry at Cambridge.<\/p>\n In the winter of her junior year, Cabana attended an information session by the Carnegie Mellon Undergraduate Research Office about international scholarship opportunities and from there began her research to find a program of study.<\/p>\n \u201cI knew that if I wanted to be a successful research professor it would be important for me to understand how research was conducted around the world, not just in the United States,\u201d Cabana said.<\/p>\n \u201cWith other programs, I felt like I had to compromise my research interests, but Cambridge had just what I was looking for \u2014 a lab that looked at biological phenomena and their connections to cancer on the molecular level.\u201d Cabana\u2019s research interests lie in the field of cancer pharmacology, which seeks to understand and quantify the ways small molecules and drug compounds interact with pathways and mechanisms in the human body to augment or diminish the progression of the disease. At Carnegie Mellon, Cabana conducted research with Professor of Biological Sciences and Chemistry Marcel Bruchez on genetically targeted photoablation, helping to create a fusion protein to target and destroy specific cell lines using fluorescent imaging techniques. \u201cGates Cambridge is highly competitive and is looking for that exceptional researcher who is going to make important contributions in the future. Christina is just that researcher, and her work has enormous potential to advance medical science,\u201d said Richelle Bernazzoli, assistant director of undergraduate research, who worked closely with Cabana through both the Goldwater and Gates Cambridge application processes.<\/p>\n Following her year abroad, Cabana plans to pursue a Ph.D. in chemical or molecular biology and aspires to lead a research group in cancer pharmacology and teach at the university level.<\/p>\n \u201cCreating more widely effective cancer immunotherapy is the big problem that I want to solve,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Cabana is the third student from Carnegie Mellon to win a Gates Cambridge Scholarship. Tomer Reiter, a Mellon College of Science graduate, received the award in 2015, and Scott Kaufman, a 2003 graduate of the Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences, was selected in 2004.<\/p>\n \u2666 Emily Payne<\/em><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_code _builder_version=”3.14″]<!– [et_pb_line_break_holder] –><!– [et_pb_line_break_holder] –><script type=”text\/javascript”><!– [et_pb_line_break_holder] –> jQuery(document).ready(function() {<!– [et_pb_line_break_holder] –>\/\/ Hide the div<!– [et_pb_line_break_holder] –>jQuery(‘#reveal’).hide();<!– [et_pb_line_break_holder] –>jQuery(‘.rv_button’).click(function(e){<!– [et_pb_line_break_holder] –>e.preventDefault();jQuery(“#reveal”).slideToggle();<!– [et_pb_line_break_holder] –>jQuery(‘.rv_button’).toggleClass(‘opened closed’);<!– [et_pb_line_break_holder] –>});<!– [et_pb_line_break_holder] –>});<!– [et_pb_line_break_holder] –><\/script>[\/et_pb_code][et_pb_button button_text=”Christina Cabana’s Photo Gallery” module_class=”rv_button closed” _builder_version=”3.14″ custom_button=”on” button_text_color=”#e05929″ button_border_color=”#e05929″ button_font=”||||||||” button_icon=”%%100%%” button_on_hover=”off”][\/et_pb_button][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ module_id=”reveal” _builder_version=”3.14″ background_color=”#bb0000″ use_background_color_gradient=”on” background_color_gradient_start=”#ffffff” background_color_gradient_end=”#e09b82″ custom_padding=”0|0px|0|0px|false|false”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”3.14″][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”3.14″ parallax=”off” parallax_method=”on”][et_pb_gallery gallery_ids=”171,172,169,170,168,167,166,164,165,651″ orientation=”portrait” show_title_and_caption=”off” _builder_version=”3.14″ title_level=”h6″ title_font=”||||||||” title_text_color=”#bb0000″ title_font_size=”10px” pagination_font=”||||||||” pagination_text_color=”#2d2d2d” background_layout=”dark”][\/et_pb_gallery][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”3.14″ background_color=”#686868″ background_image=”https:\/\/magazine.mcs.cmu.edu\/chemistry\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/05\/2019_initiator_Li_Student-Notes.jpg” custom_padding=”30px|0px|30px|0px|false|false”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”3.14″][et_pb_column type=”1_2″ _builder_version=”3.14″ parallax=”off” parallax_method=”on”][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_2″ _builder_version=”3.14″ parallax=”off” parallax_method=”on”][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/magazine.mcs.cmu.edu\/chemistry\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/05\/2019_initiator_Li_Student-Notes.jpg” disabled_on=”off|off|on” _builder_version=”3.14″][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.14″ text_font=”||||||||” text_text_color=”#ffffff” header_font=”|||on|||||” header_text_color=”#ffffff” header_2_font=”|||on|||||” header_2_text_color=”#ffffff” background_color=”rgba(0,0,0,0.65)” border_width_all=”15px” border_color_all=”rgba(0,0,0,0)”]<\/p>\n As a Ph.D. candidate, Qi Li (S 2019) received the Bright Futures Student Award from the International Precious Metals Institute for his work on gold nanoparticles. The $5,000 prize sponsored by the Gero Family Trust was presented at the institute’s 2018 conference in Texas.<\/p>\n \u201cMy research mainly focuses on the atomic-structure tailoring of a 23-gold-atom nanoparticle, and then modulating and optimizing its properties,\u201d Li said. Last year, Li published a study in the journal Science Advances demonstrating the first instance of site-specific surgery on a nanoparticle. \u201cThis work constitutes a major step toward the development of atomically precise, versatile nanochemistry for the precise tailoring of the nanoparticle structure to control its physical properties,\u201d Li said.<\/p>\n Li, who works in the lab of Chemistry Professor Rongchao Jin, also has researched different models of \u201cdoping\u201d gold nanoparticles, a process where a small amount of another metal is added to the nanoparticle. \u201cThis series of work demonstrates the intriguing chemistry of doping for tailoring the atomic-structures and properties of ultrasmall metal nanoparticles,\u201d Li noted. Chemistry Ph.D. candidate Zoe Wright received the Best Presentation Award at the International Symposium on Biorelated Polymers: Innovation in Biomedical Polymers during the 255th American Chemical Society National Meeting and Exposition. Wright was picked by a panel of judges for her presentation titled \u201cHydrolysis-Driven Drug Delivery and Tunable Adhesive Properties: Bioactive Medical Adhesives.\u201d The prize, sponsored by Polymer International, comes with a book credit from Wiley.<\/p>\n \u201cMy research focuses on synthesizing new methacrylate-based monomers to act as additives to existing medical adhesives.\u201d These new monomers contain small-molecule therapeutic drugs such as ibuprofen or acetaminophen, or agents that can stimulate bone healing.<\/p>\n \u201cBased on the type of drug we select for the adhesive and the release profile we choose via the covalent tether, we can design adhesives to actively guide wound healing,\u201d Wright said.<\/p>\n \u201cThese monomers also can be \u2018tuned\u2019 to have the same physical properties as the adhesive they’re added to,\u201d Wright said, whether soft like skin or rigid like bone. \u201cWe hope that this tunability, combined with their bio-instructive, therapeutic potential, could make my adhesives an effective replacement for \u2018medical hardware\u2019 like stitches, staples and metallic bone screws.\u201d Christina Cabana Awarded Gates Cambridge Scholarship to Study in United Kingdom When Christina Cabana found out she was awarded the Gates Cambridge Scholarship, she rushed to tell her parents, forgetting that they were on a plane at the time and had to wait almost six hours to share the good news. \u201cI got ahold of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":2,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-18","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.mcs.cmu.edu\/chemistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/18","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.mcs.cmu.edu\/chemistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.mcs.cmu.edu\/chemistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.mcs.cmu.edu\/chemistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.mcs.cmu.edu\/chemistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18"}],"version-history":[{"count":38,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.mcs.cmu.edu\/chemistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/18\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":707,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.mcs.cmu.edu\/chemistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/18\/revisions\/707"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.mcs.cmu.edu\/chemistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.mcs.cmu.edu\/chemistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\n[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_2″ _builder_version=”3.14″ parallax=”off” parallax_method=”on”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.14″]As part of her program, Cabana is working in Professor Sir Shankar Balasubramanian\u2019s laboratories, which are based in the University of Cambridge\u2019s Department of Chemistry and the Cancer Research U.K. Cambridge Institute. Cabana is excited to build upon her skills in researching the epigenetic processes that contribute to cancer over the course of her year abroad.<\/p>\n
\nIn 2017, Cabana was awarded a Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship, which supports students interested in pursuing research careers in the fields of science, engineering and math.<\/p>\nQi Li Receives Award from the International Precious Metals Institute<\/h2>\n
\n[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”3.14″ background_color=”#000000″ background_size=”initial” custom_padding=”30px|0px|30px|0px|false|false”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”3.14″][et_pb_column type=”1_2″ _builder_version=”3.14″ parallax=”off” parallax_method=”on”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.14″ text_font=”||||||||” text_text_color=”#ffffff” header_font=”|||on|||||” header_text_color=”#ffffff” header_2_font=”|||on|||||” header_2_text_color=”#ffffff” background_color=”rgba(0,0,0,0.65)” border_width_all=”10px” border_color_all=”rgba(0,0,0,0)”]<\/p>\nZoe Wright Wins Best Presentation Award at Annual ACS Meeting<\/h2>\n
\n[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_2″ _builder_version=”3.14″ parallax=”off” parallax_method=”on”][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/magazine.mcs.cmu.edu\/chemistry\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/05\/2019_initiator_Wright_Student-Notes.jpg” _builder_version=”3.14″][\/et_pb_image][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”3.14″ background_color=”#e0e0e0″ box_shadow_style=”preset6″ custom_padding=”30px|0px|30px|0px|false|false”][et_pb_row custom_padding=”0|0px|0|0px|false|false” _builder_version=”3.14″][et_pb_column type=”1_2″ _builder_version=”3.0.47″ parallax=”off” parallax_method=”on”][et_pb_button button_url=”https:\/\/magazine.mcs.cmu.edu\/chemistry\/2019-issue\/research-notes\/” button_text=”Research Notes” _builder_version=”3.14″ custom_button=”on” button_text_color=”#4a8b40″ button_border_color=”rgba(0,0,0,0)” button_font=”||||||||” button_icon=”%%2%%” button_icon_color=”#4a8b40″ button_icon_placement=”left” button_on_hover=”off” button_border_color_hover=”#4a8b40″][\/et_pb_button][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_2″ _builder_version=”3.0.47″ parallax=”off” parallax_method=”on”][et_pb_button button_url=”https:\/\/magazine.mcs.cmu.edu\/chemistry\/2019-issue\/alumni-notes\/” button_text=”Alumni Notes” button_alignment=”right” _builder_version=”3.14″ custom_button=”on” button_text_color=”#4a8b40″ button_border_color=”rgba(0,0,0,0)” button_font=”||||||||” button_icon=”%%3%%” button_icon_color=”#4a8b40″ button_on_hover=”off” button_border_color_hover=”#4a8b40″][\/et_pb_button][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"