Group Picture, Fall 2017

Presenting Team Sydlik, Fall 2017 Edition! There was a puddle by our usual sign, so we had to improvise. It was nice out & we were wearing enough blue & green that we couldn't pass up a picture day.

Sydlik Group, Fall 2017

Left to Right: Caoxin Tang (senior, Chem), Jenny Gao (senior, Chem), Anne Arnold (GS4, Chem), Zoe Wright (GS4, Chem),  Stefanie Sydlik (Professor), Brian Holt (postdoc), Karoline Eckhart (GS1, Chem), Dan Siroky (GS3, Chem), Stephanie Kuang (junior, Chem) Missing: Alex Moy (senior, MSE), Wyatt Swift-Ramirez (junior, Chem)

How epic of us, right?

Congrats to Jenny!

Jenny won 3rd place in this summer's undergraduate Three Minute Thesis competition for her research on graphene as a potential scaffold for bone regeneration. Congrats!

Jenny presents to a packed house!

Summer Picnic

This weekend, Team Sydlik gathered at the nearby Schenley Park to enjoy a late 4th of July picnic. I was happy that friends, family, and significant others were able to attend too! It's important to have good support outside of lab to have a happy researcher in lab, so I am grateful for the "extended team" that the Sydlik group has too. Doubly exciting, we welcomed new graduate rotating graduate student Karoline on Sunday too!

Team Sydlik summer crew!

Summer crew with our important people

#grillselfie

Tots nerding out about medicine. #doclife

"Make sure you get the bike in the picture. It's important!"

Team Sydlik's first cover!

Congrats to Brian & Annie for having their recent paper featured on the cover of Polymer International!

So fancy!

Congrats to Zoe, Annie, and Will!

Last week was a big one for Team Sydlik!

First, congrats to Zoe and Annie for becoming the Sydlik Group's first ABD (all but doctorate) PhD candidates!

Not to be outdone, congrats to Will for becoming the first graduate of the Sydlik Group! Will graduated with his BS in Chemistry on Sunday and will head to Duke to pursue his PhD this fall.

Top: Karen Stump, me, and my advisor Rick McCullough at CMU's graduation in 2007
Bottom: Karen Stump, Will, and me at CMU's graduation in 2017... I just had to recreate it!

Bioinspired Polypeptide Graphene

Our latest paper was just published in Polymer International! Using a living polymerization technique, we successfully chemically modified graphite, or pencil lead, to give a new bioinspired graphene. We demonstrated good mechanical properties and an propensity for cell adhesion, suggesting the promise of this material as a scaffold for tissue regeneration. Good work, Annie and Brian! You can read the full paper here: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/pi.5375/full

Glowing cells growing happily on our magical bioinspired pencil lead

Group Picture, Spring 2017

It was time for a new group picture! Welcome springtime weather!

Sydlik Group, Spring 2017

Left to Right: Dan Siroky (GS2, Chem), Anne Arnold (GS3, Chem), Brian Holt (postdoc), Wyatt Swift-Ramirez (sophomore, Chem), Caoxin Tang (junior, Chem),  Gauav Begur (junior, BME/ MSE), Zoe Wright (GS3, Chem), Jenny Gao (junior, Chem), Will Koshut (senior, Chem), Val Senavsky (junior, Chem), Stefanie Sydlik (Professor)

#SydlikGroupSelfie in the elevator. They are very nice to humor me!