Week 1

The presentation this week was given by Dr. Novella N. Bridges. She came from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory to talk to us about a innovative new method for treating cancer. Her method included the use of a chemotherapy agent that would be delivered directly to the cancer infected area. Delivery methods included injection and application through a paint brush for tumors that had been recently removed. Although her drug disipated too quickly (i.e. it did not remain in the delivery vehicle) she is working on achieving 99% drug delivery to the infected site.

I thoroughly enjoyed the seminar given today by Dr. Allen.  I felt he presented his research very clearly.  He spoke on the Increasing the Utility of Contrasting Agents used during MRI tests.   The most commonly used compounds for contrast enhancement are gadolinium-based. MRI contrast agents alter the proton relaxation times of tissues and body cavities where they are present, which depending on the image weighting can give a higher or lower signal.  Basically, they're used to improve the visibility of disease in internal body organs.  Dr.

Matthew Allen gave a seminar on “Increasing the Utility of Contrast Agents for Magnetic Resonance Imaging using Lanthanide Chemistry”. Dr. Allen conducted his postdoctoral research at the University of Wisconsin before starting his first faculty position in the Department of Chemistry at Wayne State University. His seminar was very understandable, with a PowerPoint presentation that was easy to follow. It was very interesting hearing how gadolinium, in particular, is being researched and finding out how it can be used with MRIs to highlight different tissue areas.

Matthew Allen is an assistant professor of Wayne State University in Detroit, MI.  After graduating from Swartz Creek High School, MI, he earned his bachelor degree in chemistry and a minor in mathematics at Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN. Also, he obtained a doctorate in Chemistry at California Institute of Technology. Allen obtained several distinguished awards from NIH, NSF, Eli, Lilly and Bausch & Lomb.

The speaker, Dr. Matthew J. Allen had a presentation style that was both informative and understandable.  Allen is an assistant professor of chemistry at Wayne State University. The topic that Prof. Allen presented on was “Increasing the Utility of Contrast Agents for Magnetic Resonance Imaging using Lanthanide Chemistry.”