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Engineer Receives $1.05 Million for Assessing Biomedical Promise of Electrically Active Plastic |
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 Photo by Jennie Trower Click on photo for hi-res version. |
Dr. Christine Schmidt has received a four-year, $1.05 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to investigate the potential of a modified plastic to stimulate the regrowth of severed nerves in the body or to serve other medical purposes. The plastic, called polypyrrole, is the first man-made plastic (polymer) with broad biomedical potential to have been successfully linked to a natural molecule so it can interact with nerve cells or other body components. Left: Dr. Schmidt poses with the atomic force microscope, or AFM, which tests how strong the interaction is between polypyrrole and the piece of protein they have linked to it. |
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Photo by Jennie Trower Click on photo for hi-res version |
Dr. Schmidt stands with her students, Jon Nickels (right), and postdoc, Dr. Joo-Woon Lee (center), who are also working on the project. |
 Photo by Jennie Trower Click on photo for hi-res version.
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Dr. Schmidt, Jon Nickels and Dr. Joo-Woon Lee stand behind a force image of the topology of a polymer on the monitor at right. |
