An Introduction to Hydrogels, Drugs, and Me

Hello everyone reading this,

I am Russell Llave, a senior at BASIS Scottsdale. In this blog, I will record my experiences in my senior research project. At BASIS, seniors end class at the conclusion of second trimester. In the trimester of school, while everyone else in the school continues to attend class, seniors have the opportunity to complete a senior research project, which requires students to attend an internship for fifteen hours per week, update a blog weekly, and complete a presentation to which anyone can attend.

For my senior research project, I will be working in Dr. Brent Vernon's Biomaterials (link:
ASU Biomaterials Lab) Lab at Arizona State University (ASU). I have only received some details about my exact project, and so I cannot elaborate more on the specifics of my project. However, I do know that I will be working on, as the title suggests, improving shelf life and stability testing of polymers used to form hydrogels. Hydrogels are complex compounds with many applications. The application I will focus on is drug delivery. Hydrogels have a lower critical solution temperature (LCST for short). Below the LCST, hydrogels are liquids, while above the LCST, the hydrogels become solid. While in liquid state, the hydrogel can be mixed with drugs. After being heated to above the LCST, the hydrogel becomes solid and has trapped the drug within its complex structure. Over time, the gel degrades, causing parts of the gel to break off. As a result, drug is released. Thus, if the LCST of a hydrogel is below a human's body temperature, the hydrogel can be placed within a human and locally deliver drugs to specific areas. This can be used during orthopedic surgery, where there is a high risk of bacterial infection.

Over the past summer, I emailed numerous biomedical engineering professors at ASU if they would let me, a high school junior with minimal lab experience, assist with their research. Luckily, multiple professors replied and I ultimately decided to work in Dr. Vernon's lab. For thirty hours per week, I would go to lab and learn about different lab protocols. During this time, I was assigned a project of determining the effects of gamma irradiation on hydrogels. To complete this project, I ran multiple tests on hydrogels that underwent different amounts of radiation and on hydrogels that underwent no radiation. Afterwards, I compared all the data and noted any differences. This experience gave me a better idea of what biomedical engineers do in lab and also taught me many principles and practices in lab that I hope to use throughout this project and in my future as I aspire to major in biomedical engineering in college.

I hope you enjoy my first post and follow me on my adventure.

Thank you.

Russell Llave