ANACHEM 2024 and Student Awards

The 2024 ANACHEM symposium was held on November 7th, 2024 in Livonia, Michigan. The day-long event was filled with research talks, workshops, a poster session, and a plenary lecture from Dr. Facundo M. Fernández, Regents’ Professor and Vasser-Woolley Chair in Bioanalytical Chemistry at Georgia Institute of Technology.

Multiple students represented the Bailey Lab. Third year student Ayush Chitrakar gave a talk titled “ Development of a droplet microfluidics platform for the rapid detection of electrolytes.” Third year students Manik Reddy and Hanyu Zheng both presented posters on their research. 

Congrats to all the presenters!

Left to right: Hanyu, Ayush, and Manik at ANACHEM

Hanyu presenting his poster!

Manik presenting his poster!

Ayush giving his talk!

Fall 2024 Awards

Third year student Manik Reddy was recognized for his poster presentation at ANACHEM in November 2024.

Second year student Anusha Vajrala was recognized for her academic excellence and service to the Michigan community by a scholarship from the University of Michigan Alumni Club of Denver in September 2024.

Lab sustainability update!

Bailey lab receives platinum status for sustainability!

The Bailey lab was recently awarded the Platinum Certification for Sustainable Laboratories through the Office of Campus Sustainability. Platinum is the highest status a lab can achieve, and requires taking significant actions to reduce the lab’s environmental impact. Some of the measures our lab has taken include recycling empty pipette tip boxes and racks, recycling clear rigid plastics through the Polycarbin recycling service, and participating in the Chemistry Department’s 2024 Freezer Challenge. We recently celebrated our efforts with other labs in the department with an ice cream social, with reusable spoons of course!

2024 Alum|NUM and URAN|UM event and Karle Symposium recap!

The annual Alumni Networking at UMich (Alum|NUM) and the Undergraduate Research and Networking at UMich (URAN|UM) event is committed to connecting undergraduate researchers to alumni in academia and industry by providing a space for scientific research presentations. Rising third-year student, Ayush Chitrakar, and rising second-year student, Antigone Wilson, were on the organizing committee for this event.

Bailey Lab members attended the Alum|NUM and URAN|UM event and presented at the Isabella & Jerome Karle Symposium last week! Invited speakers spanned both academia and industry, with Dr. Nathan Silvernail (PPG) and Professor Megan Fieser (University of Southern California) giving the keynote lectures. Additional events included visiting faculty and industry-led panels, professional development activities, graduate student presentations, and poster sessions.

Representing the Bailey Lab at the Karle Symposium were rising third-year students, Lindsay Heagle and Hanyu Zheng, and rising second-year student, Camila Gonzalez. Both Lindsay and Camila received student poster presentation awards! Rising third-years, Ayush Chitrakar and Lindsay Heagle, and rising second-year, Anusha Vajrala, were on the organizing committee for this symposium.

Congratulations and wonderful job to all participating Bailey Lab members!

Thank you to all of the student organizers, sponsors, visiting faculty and industry professionals and we look forward to participating in the Karle Symposium next year!



New publication! Congratulations to Manik on his work in the Journal of Chemical Education!

Congratulations to 3rd year PhD candidate, Manik Reddy, on his recent first author publication in the ACS Journal of Chemical Education alongside Professor of Chemistry, Biophysics, and Biological Chemistry, Dr. Nils Walter, and Chemistry Librarian, Dr. Yulia Sevryugina!

Implementation and Evaluation of a ChatGPT-Assisted Special Topics Writing Assignment in Biochemistry

Abstract: The effective and responsible educational application of ChatGPT and other generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) tools constitutes an active area of exploration. This study describes and assesses the implementation of a structured, GenAI-assisted scientific essay writing assignment in nucleic acid biochemistry. Briefly, students created, evaluated, and iteratively refined ChatGPT essays in response to feedback and independent literature research, identifying several strengths and shortcomings of large language model writing and citation practices. The scaffolded assignment structure aimed to prepare students for GenAI-assisted writing, and the majority of the class cohort ultimately indicated an improved understanding of GenAI functionality and prompt engineering, as well as interest in additional GenAI usage and applications. Moreover, students valued the instructional guidance on engagement with GenAI tools and the prompt engineering opportunities afforded by this exercise. However, discontentment with AI-produced citations was common, and 26% of supporting references were found to be nonexistent. The content evaluation and prompt generation strategies uncovered here may facilitate successful ChatGPT-guided writing assignments in other scientific contexts.

Click here for the full article!

New publication! Congratulations to Claire on her work in Advanced Biology!

Congratulations to Dr. Claire Cook on her recent co-authored publication in Advanced Biology. Congrats, also, to Dr. Nico Mesyngier for the work he contributed to this publication!

CellMag-CARWash: A High Throughput Droplet Microfluidic Device for Live Cell Isolation and Single Cell Applications

Abstract: The recent push toward understanding an individual cell's behavior and identifying cellular heterogeneity has created an unmet need for technologies that can probe live cells at the single-cell level. Cells within a population are known to exhibit heterogeneous responses to environmental cues. These differences can lead to varied cellular states, behavior, and responses to therapeutics. Techniques are needed that are not only capable of processing and analyzing cellular populations at the single cell level, but also have the ability to isolate specific cell populations from a complex sample at high throughputs. The new CellMag-Coalesce-Attract-Resegment Wash (CellMag-CARWash) system combines positive magnetic selection with droplet microfluidic devices to isolate cells of interest from a mixture with >93% purity and incorporate treatments within individual droplets to observe single cell biological responses. This workflow is shown to be capable of probing the single cell extracellular vesicle (EV) secretion of MCF7 GFP cells. This article reports the first measurement of β-Estradiol's effect on EV secretion from MCF7 cells at the single cell level. Single cell processing revealed that MCF7 GFP cells possess a heterogeneous response to β-Estradiol stimulation with a 1.8-fold increase relative to the control.

Click here for the full article!

Agilent Symposium 2024!

Many Bailey Lab members attended the 3rd annual Agilent symposium at Weiser hall on May 7th, 2024! Invited speakers spanned academia and industry, with Professor Scott McLuckey (Purdue University), Dr. Joseph Meeuwsen (Agilent), and Professor Kevin Plaxco (University of California, Santa Barbara) giving the keynote lectures. The symposium also included student presentations from our colleagues in neighboring labs, a Q&A panel with industry scientists, and two poster sessions. Our very own Ayush talked about his recent work in a great poster presentation! Way to go, Ayush! We would like to thank the organizers of the event and we are looking forward to next years symposium!

Manik completes his gateway exam!!

Congratulations to 2nd-year PhD candidate, Manik Reddy, for passing his gateway exam! His project proposal was titled “Derivation of Diagnostic and Prognostic Biomarker Signatures via Multiplexed Microring Resonator Immunoassays”. Here’s to successful microring applications in the years to come!

Congrats, Manik, on completing this huge milestone in your graduate school journey. We are so proud of you!