Contact: Anita Clark
(262) 472-1193
clarka@uww.edu
Two promising research projects in nanotechnology, the study of extremely small structures, have won research grants at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.
Eric Brown, an assistant professor of biological sciences, won a $35,954 applied research grant from the UW System for his work on ways to keep surfaces free of contamination.
An undergraduate student, Jay Blatnik, and Brown won a $3,000 research grant from the Microscopy Society of America for work that could lead to better cancer treatments.
Both studies involve promising work with biologically modified nanoparticles.
“You’re using the same tool in both grants, but the purposes are very, very different,” Brown said. “That’s the power of bionanotechnology. You can develop these tools and use them for different applications.”
Nanotechnology involves matter that has one dimension of 100 nanometers or less and has unique properties it would not have on a larger scale. A nanometer is one-billionth of a meter; a sheet of paper is about 100,000 nanometers thick.
Blatnik, a senior from Wales, attaches fluorescent dyes to nanoparticles, which allows him to track their movement in live cancer cells. The ultimate goal of the research is to improve cancer treatment by targeting only diseased cells.
In Brown’s study, he modifies titanium dioxide nanoparticles with fluorescent dyes and then tries to use the nanoparticles to clean and decontaminate surfaces.
When activated by light, the nanoparticles yield a reactive oxygen species that may work against biological contaminants.
“Our hopes would be those reactive oxygen species would inflict damage on any unwanted biological agents such as bacteria, mold or fungus,” Brown said.
Such light-activated decontamination could be useful in areas such as food processing plants or hospital intensive care units where surfaces need to be as sterile as possible, he said.
Blatnik plans to attend graduate school, earn a doctorate in neuroscience and study dementia. He said conducting undergraduate research with Brown as his mentor has taught him not only about science but also about the paperwork behind the science as he described his work and sought the grant.
Brown’s grant helps fund student research jobs in his lab for four to nine undergraduate students. Those working this summer are Jacob Crosby, a junior from Elkhorn; Wendy Eidman, a post-baccalaureate student from Milton; Kara Kamps, a senior from Belmont; and Stephanie Simonet, a senior from Whitewater.
