Surita R. Bhatia - US grants

ABSTRACT
CTS-0238873
S. Bhatia
U. of Massachusetts Amherst


This project is focused on investigating the structure and rheology of soft attractive gels. The specific system proposed is water-in-fluorocarbon emulsions in which the gel transition is produced by attractive polymer bridging interactions. The PI will perform rheology, neutron scattering and dynamic light scattering measurements to determine the nature of the interaction forces and the gel structure. The concentration and molecular weight of the polymer will be varied to control the magnitude and range of the bridging attraction.

In addition to the experiments, the PI proposes theoretical experiments to predict the magnitude of the bridging attraction and to improve the available model to include interactions between the polymer chains themselves.

This proposal requests support for acquiring a gel permeation chromatography set-up with MALS, RI, and viscosity detectors for polymer materials research and education. The need for the instrumentation is based on significantly increased demand in using GPC for characterizing custom-designed polymers. This demand is evidenced by the fact that seven of the investigators listed in this proposal were hired by the University of Massachusetts within the past five years. The applications of these custom-designed polymers range from material science to biology. This instrument will also serve as a demonstration equipment for high school outreach programs targeted on science popularization.
%%%
This proposal requests a Gel Permeation Chromatography equipment to characterize polymeric materials. Several research groups at the University of Massachusetts are interested in the design and synthesis of polymers that are of interest in a wide variety of applications. These applications range from material science (e.g. light emitting diodes and photovoltaic materials) to biology (e.g. targeted delivery of chemotherapeutic drugs to cancer cells). On the educational side, this equipment will be used for demonstrations in a 'science popularization' outreach program that is being run by the PI and co-PIs of this proposal.
***

Proposal No. CTS-0421043
Principal Investigator: H. Winter, University of Massachusetts Amherst

This grant is for the development of two novel instruments. An optical micro-rheometer and a filament stretching rheometer will be designed to simultaneously measure the evolution of stress and material structure as a function of time and accumulated strain in shear and in uniaxial extension. The optical micro-rheometer combines stress measurement with simultaneous observation of light scattering, microscopy, fluorescence, and birefringence from the sample. The filament stretching rheometer is capable of measuring the response of complex fluids to a transient extensional flow starting from an imposed initial microstructural deformation, alignment and morphology. Both instruments are designed for studies on very small samples that are required for collaboration with polymer chemists who typically prepare their most advanced materials as small samples only. Experiments with the proposed instruments will generate a deeper understanding of the behavior of complex materials such as liquid crystalline polymers under shear, crystallizing polymers as a function of molecular topology, phase separating polymer blends in shear, self assembling micellar systems in shear and extension, and particle topology in particle gels. The properties of these complex materials are strongly affected by the deformation and alignment of their microstructure in addition to their molecular composition. The study of rheology attempts to relate the local state of stress in such complex materials to the local deformation rate, elapsed time, and accumulated strain through a series of carefully designed experiments. Specifically for the new experiments, simultaneous measurement of stress and structure are expected to lead to conclusive information about flow-induced transitional states. Among the broader impacts of this work is to facilitate the development of new products, which depends on the availability of suitable materials. Therefore it is essential to develop new instruments that further our ability to create and understand new materials. In addition, the availability of the proposed instruments as a multi-user facility will have great impact on the education of all researchers involved. Once the instruments are completed, broader interaction and cross-fertilization of ideas will be enabled. Regular interdisciplinary research meetings will involve both graduate and undergraduate students. While the new instruments allow graduate students to perform their advanced research, undergraduate students will particularly profit from learning the proposed optical methods that will allow them to perform very advanced materials research on complicated topics through visual observation before their analytical skills have been developed to a comparable level. This will introduce students at an early state of their education to the excitement of discovery.

This Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) award establishes a novel interdisciplinary training program at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst to address the emerging field of Cellular Engineering. Engineering cellular form and function is the basis for many ventures in the biomedical and biotechnology industries, including design of bioremediation processes, generation of artificial organs/tissues, production of biologics from cell culture, design of new and improved protein-based pharmaceuticals and targeted drug delivery. Students matriculate in one of 12 degree programs with a research focus in one of three interrelated cellular engineering thrust areas: 1) Applied Systems Biology, 2) Cell Delivery and 3) Protein Engineering. Key features include a novel unifying lecture/laboratory course to train both life scientists and engineers/physical scientists in cellular engineering fundamentals, interdisciplinary research involving "supergroup" projects in which students seek out collaboration with a related training laboratory; interactions with industry through the established UMass-Amherst Institute for Cellular Engineering; weekly research seminars with a mentoring component; and formal professional development activities.

This IGERT has all-female leadership and significant numbers of female faculty participants. Underrepresented students are recruited through the NEAGEP, an NSF-funded project co-led by UMass-Amherst and including ten research-extensive and six minority-serving institutions that collaborate to increase the number of underrepresented students who receive doctoral degrees in science, technology, engineering and mathematics disciplines. This IGERT encourages novel research collaborations in cellular engineering among faculty, creating new bridging programs among departments and providing unique learning opportunities for trainees. Purposeful alignment with the Institute for Cellular Engineering enables substantial interaction with regional cellular engineering companies, significantly broadening student training. IGERT is an NSF-wide program intended to meet the challenges of educating U.S. Ph.D. scientists and engineers with the interdisciplinary background, deep knowledge in a chosen discipline, and the technical, professional, and personal skills needed for the career demands of the future. The program is intended to catalyze a cultural change in graduate education by establishing innovative new models for graduate education and training in a fertile environment for collaborative research that transcends traditional disciplinary boundaries.

EEC-0649041
Surita Bhatia

This award for an REU site at the University of Massachusetts Amherst will engage 10 undergraduate students each year for three years in research experiences in the area of Cellular Engineering. The specific objectives of the program are to: 1) encourage and motivate students to pursue graduate studies in cellular engineering; 2) train students to transition from dependent to independent researchers; 3) enable students to communicate effectively across disciplines through active participation in "supergroup" research projects and meetings involving faculty and students from life sciences and the engineering/physical sciences; and 4) provide students with strategies for professional success, including activities centered on career guidance, ethics, identifying mentors, and honing "soft skills". Understanding cellular function and manipulating cells/tissues to perform in a particular manner is the basis for many ventures in the biomedical, biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries.

Recruitment efforts will be targeted to undergraduate students majoring in chemical engineering, bioengineering, chemistry, biology, and biochemistry, with special emphasis placed on recruitment of students from underrepresented groups. Students will be recruited with the assistance of the Northeast Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (NEAGEP). NEAGEP includes ten research-extensive and six minority-serving institutions that actively collaborate to increase the number of domestic students who receive doctoral degrees in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines. NEAGEP places particular emphasis on recruiting and retaining underrepresented students and encouraging their entrance into the professoriate.

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).

0853551
Bhatia

Colloidal particles with attractive interparticle potentials are important from both a fundamental and applications standpoint. Much of the research to date has focused on colloids with short-range attractions, which may form either attractive colloidal glasses or networked gels. However, recent studies have shown that a new phase containing stable dense clusters of particles may be formed in systems with moderate-range attractions. These exciting results underscore the importance of the range of attraction as an additional parameter to explore in determining the phase behavior of attractive colloids.

In this GOALI project, we will develop a fundamental understanding of how the range of attractive interactions impacts large-scale structure in colloidal dispersions, including aggregation and formation of finite sized clusters, and apply this knowledge to develop improved toner formulations. We confine ourselves to systems in which the attractions arise from bridging chains and in which the particle polymer size ratio is O(1). Our study distinguishes itself from previous work in that we will both quantify the interparticle potential using small angle scattering and explore structure using scattering and imaging techniques. The main objectives of the proposal are to:

1. Develop a model system where the range of attraction can be tuned, and characterize the interparticle potential using small angle neutron scattering;

2. Probe large scale structure and aggregation in systems at rest using ultra-small angle neutron scattering (USANS), dynamic light scattering, confocal microscopy, and TEM;

3. Investigate the effect of shear on cluster morphology and rheology; and

4. Test the extensibility of our findings to industrially relevant systems, through graduate student internships and industrial interactions provided by researchers at Xerox Corporation.

Xerox Corporation is interested in applications of colloidal aggregation to toner production and will serve as the industrial partner for this GOALI. Inclusion of Xerox as a partner will add value by facilitating transfer of the research results into an industrially relevant technology and by broadening the training experiences of graduate and undergraduate students involved in the project. Xerox personnel will actively participate by providing comments and suggestions at regular research team meetings, by arranging student internships to evaluate the applicability of the research to toner production, by providing funds in support of portions of the work, and by participating in an industrial short course.

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The long-term goal of this project is to significantly increase the number of students from underrepresented groups who obtain Ph.D. degrees in biomedical fields. To this end, we will establish a one-year PREP internship that includes independent research and individualized programs of study, each with an interdisciplinary focus designed to increase the competitiveness of the PREP students for admission to rigorous biomedical graduate programs. Our project will capitalize on unique strengths of the University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMA): A) UMA leads the Northeast Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (NEAGEP), a highly interactive network of 15 minority-serving and research-extensive universities with demonstrated success in recruiting and retaining minority students STEM Ph.D. programs;B) UMA has well developed programs of interdisciplinary research and graduate education in biomedicine;C) UMA has developed effective multi-level mentoring programs to support diversity at all levels of academia. We will use these strengths to accomplish the following specific aims: 1) Use existing connections in NEAGEP and at UMA to recruit talented students from underrepresented groups;2) Pre-screen students through a well established eight-week summer program for undergraduate research (SPUR);3) Train near-peer and faculty mentors through an eight-week workshop series, "Entering Mentoring", focused on working with students from diverse backgrounds;4) Work with PREP participants and their mentors to formulate individualized programs of study based on interests, strengths and needs of students identified during SPUR;5) Start mentoring on first contact and continue through graduate school and beyond. During the program, students will rotate through two laboratories and have two sets of faculty and near-peer graduate student mentors. The Institute for Cellular Engineering, Chemistry-Biology Interface and Neuroendocrinology graduate training programs will provide an interdisciplinary focus through specific enrichment courses. Students will participate in regular social and professional development activities, many with NEAGEP doctoral students so that PREP participants will be part of a larger community of minority scholars and role models. Group PREP courses will focus on working in interdisciplinary and diverse groups in biomedicine, developing critical thinking skills and gaining an understanding of the responsible conduct of research. Faculty mentors, PIs and the Office of Graduate Recruitment and Retention will teach students how to apply to graduate school and to obtain pre- doctoral fellowships. At the end of the program, we anticipate that students will enroll in one of the numerous biomedicine graduate programs served by the participating interdisciplinary training programs or in graduate programs in other NEAGEP institutions. This program will help meet the growing need for biomedical researchers who can address issues of all segments of our population. The continuous multi-tiered mentoring and emphasis on interdisciplinary research inherent in the UMA PREP will increase the success of our students in doctoral programs and preparedness for biomedical research careers where the prevalence of multi-investigator projects is increasing. We expect our strategies to significantly increase the number of biomedical researchers from underrepresented groups. The strategies we devise will be transferrable and will help develop the diverse workforce needed to address disparities in healthcare and ensure continued international preeminence in biomedicine and biotechnology.

This three year REU Site program at the University of Massachusetts Amherst will engage 9 undergraduate students in research projects that involve applications of cellular engineering to challenges in pharmaceutical production, protein design, and bioenergy. Understanding cellular function and manipulating cells/tissues to perform in a particular manner is the basis of many ventures in biomedical, biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries.

Specific objectives of this REU Site program are to: 1) encourage and motivate students to pursue graduate studies in cellular engineering, including women, minority, and deaf and hearing impaired students; (2) train students to transition from dependent to independent researchers; 3) enable students to communicate effectively across disciplines; and 4) provide students with strategies for professional success through a Professional Development Seminar.

In addition to the research projects, the REU participants will be involved in research cluster meetings with larger groups of students and faculty; a Professional Development Seminar covering career paths, ethics, diversity in the workplace, identifying mentors, interdisciplinary communication, team-building, and development of collegial relationships; research seminars by faculty and graduate students; and an end of year student poster session.

What are the broader impacts of the proposed activity?
Recruitment efforts will target students majoring in chemical engineering, bioengineering, chemistry, biology and biochemistry. The PI will leverage the NSF-funded Northeast Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (NEAGEP) and the Northeast Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP), both led by the University of Massachusetts campus, to enhance the recruitment of underrepresented minority students. In addition, the Principal Investigator will collaborate with the National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID) at Rochester Institute of Technology to increase participation of deaf and hearing impaired students in this REU program.

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The goal of the University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass) Initiative for Maximizing Student Development is to significantly increase the number of underrepresented minority (URM) doctoral students who complete Ph.D. degrees and postdoctoral fellowships, and become leaders in biomedical and behavioral science research. To accomplish this goal, our aims are to: 1) Enhance recruitment of well-prepared URM students for Ph.D. programs by nurturing existing partnerships with minority-serving institutions through new collaborative research initiatives. Our Partners in Research program will bring URM Partner faculty and undergraduates to laboratories at UMass for extended summer visits and our Partner Visiting Professors will bring Partner faculty back to UMass for year-long sabbaticals. In addition, UMass faculty and senior IMSD doctoral students will present seminars and workshops at Partner Institutions. Other recruiting initiatives will include an IMSD Graduate Preview Weekend at UMass and national promotion of our IMSD. 2) Enhance retention and preparation of IMSD Scholars through stage-specific funding, mentoring and professional development activities at the Transition, Achieving Candidacy and Beyond the Doctorate Stages. 3) Develop, reward and disseminate models for fostering an environment of inclusiveness. Our program will be led by five research-active faculty PIs who are well positioned to engage their colleagues in IMSD activities. In addition, our IMSD is strongly supported by the Provost who will sponsor an annual Diversity Conference to discuss progress, problems and new strategies for diversifying the biomedical and behavioral graduate student body and faculty.