Research at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University

During my time at NCAT, working closely with Dr. Kumar and his team, I assisted in the fabrication and analysis of thin films used to coat implantable devices, specifically those composed of titanium nitride. Fabrication methods included pulsed laser deposition as well as magnetron sputtering. Analysis involved quantification of corrosive properties, thickness related to deposition parameters, and electrical conduction properties. As a temporary member of the team, I was able to assist in the preparation of the sapphire on which the films would be deposited, performed some pulsed laser depositions independently, and capture SEM images of the films in addition to the quantitative studies listed above. During the research we conducted, it was discovered that the films deposited were instead composed of titanium nitroxide, due to an assumed impurity in the gas tank used for the deposition process. After comparative biocompatibility testing, it was found that the titanium nitroxide films were actually able to provide better results than those of the attempted titanium nitride films. This led Dr. Kumar’s team to continue their research on this new material in comparison to their actual goal prior to the information found in these depositions. In addition to this, the lessons and wisdom passed on to me by Dr. Kumar and his team eventually led me to win first place in the internship’s oral presentation competition.

 

Research at Stony Brook University

While at Stony Brook University, I have worked with Dr. Bluestein and his team studying prosthetic heart valves. The research project I worked mostly on was that studying the coagulation cascade of platelets. When a prosthetic heart valve is implanted in the body, it causes a high shear stress environment that causes the blood to coagulate, resulting in the patient having to remain on anticoagulant drugs for the remainder of their life. Using a simulated heart ventricle and mathematical modeling, we are able to gain more information about this phenomenon and understand how to minimize this effect. My duties included drawing blood for experiments, separating and counting platelets for each experiment, injecting the platelets and various other chemicals into the simulated ventricle, and various other tasks asked of me by the staff, including data analysis.