Last summer (during the summer of 2021), I had the opportunity to complete an internship program at the Polymeric Biomaterials Lab of Ewha Womans University. There, I was able to research thermogel and how we can utilize the thermogel, to create a successful drug delivery system. It is very inefficient and inconvenient for one with various illnesses that need an injection or medication to inject oneself every single day. To increase the efficiency of this process of injecting medicine every single day, people at the Polymeric Biomaterials Lab of Ewha Womans University are endlessly researching and experimenting with a substance known as the thermogel. 

The Mechanism of Thermogel Drug Delivery System Thermogel is a biodegradable gel that is used to deliver a certain amount of drug across a period of time, eliminating the need to inject oneself with the same drug medication every day. To control the duration of drug release, we would use hydrophilic or hydrophobic qualities of chemicals and alter the thermogel. Ms. Zhengyu Piao’s Research One researcher at the Polymeric Biomaterials that I got to work with was Ms. Zhengyu Piao. 

https://crf.iitd.ac.in/Facility-FTIR.html

Ms. Piao specifically researched how to freeze a cell and how to minimize the number of ice crystals that form inside the frozen cell. Finding a way to minimize the ice that forms inside of the cell was crucial in this research as it would prevent the cell from exploding, thus enabling the cell to complete its normal functions even after it was frozen. We used circular dichroism (CD) to analyze the specific polymer that was needed to minimize the ice crystals that formed. According to Chemistry Libretexts, “Circular Dichroism (CD) is an absorption spectroscopy method based on the differential absorption of left and right circularly polarized light.” Using this method, researchers can predict and find out the tertiary structure of the protein (alpha-helix, beta-sheet, random coil, etc.). Another device used was the Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), which “is an analytical technique used to identify organic, polymeric, and, in some cases, inorganic materials. The FTIR analysis method uses infrared light to scan test samples and observe chemical properties,” according to the RTI Lab. 

Through the internship experience, I was able to explore various topics and technology that were not available at school. This internship helped me develop further along with my passions and caused me to firmly believe my future goals and dreams that I want to pursue.
 

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