Gabi Mandl
"The research I presented in this presentation is a collaborative effort between myself, Steven, and Dr. Gabriella Tessitore and Dr. Paola Rojas-Gutierrez. In this work, we are studying the luminescence of lanthanide-doped upconverting nanoparticles which emit UV, blue, red and near-infrared light with the intention of using the UV emissions of these nanoparticles for drug delivery applications."
"We studied the effects of changing the concentration of thulium ions in our nanoaparticles to see how that affected the strength of the UV emissions from the particles, and also why the emission changes as a function of concentration of those ions. Once we found the maximum thulium UV emissions, we incorporated these nanoparticles into a light-responsive hydrogel, in which we were able to use the emissions from the nanoparticles to break open the hydrogel, as a demonstration of a light-responsive drug delivery system for cancer treatments."
"It was truly humbling to win this award, as I do not have a great deal of experience with speaking to other materials scientists. As nice as winning was, it was a particularly incredible moment because I won alongside my labmate and best friend, Steven, and we got to celebrate our hard work and achievements together. Additionally, we got to celebrate our wins with our friends Alexia and Francisco, which made it even more exciting! We all work hard and struggle together, so its nice to be able to share a really positive moment like this. Receiving this award is an excellent boost to my CV, which will hopefully help me obtain academic funding in the future, but also is a nice boost to my confidence as a young researcher as well."