Fabrication of self-assembled adaptive porous soft nanomaterials for precision medications
Mehak Jain, Ph.D. student Research Group Ravoo
Research: “I am working on fabrication and understanding of self-assembled adaptive porous soft nanomaterials.
Smart bio-responsive materials which are sensitive towards biochemical signals and have the ability to interact with them are appealing platforms for developing next generation precision medications. Hydrogels are bio-responsive materials that can mimic the hydration content in natural soft tissues. Among various types of hydrogels, self-assembled hydrogels remain more active towards bio-responsiveness due to formation of higher order structures by non-covalent interactions. The dynamic character adds properties like stimuli responsiveness, self healing, shape memory and etc.
I originally applied to Prof. Bart Jan Ravoo through the Cells in Motion- International Max Planck Research School. I was fortunate to get a position there and became a part of this institute! …Which actually highlights the position of the institute situated in the center amongst all the highly reputed research centers.”
Why she became a scientist: “I always intended to be a teacher because the more you teach, the better you understand a topic. My interest in chemistry and research was seeded by one of my tutors who taught us how basic principles of chemistry help design and create research. For me chemistry and life are all about stability, everything tries to gain the ground state. I am highly motivated to understand and find practical solutions that can contribute towards helping us in the future."
Likes about the SoN: “The SoN is a new institute in Münster; many people recognize it by its special shape and color! But for me it is one of the most advanced institutions or laboratories I have worked in. It houses a range of interdisciplinary working groups with state of art instruments like dip-pen lithography, 3D printing, ToF-SIMS and more. Finding such facilities under one roof is rare. There are not many institutes devoted solely to studying soft matter, a field evolving rapidly right now.
Special attention has been given to student safety, and all the measures are taken any moment it is required. The infrastructure is amazing-- how everything was thought through and planned. This saves us a great deal of time with testing samples.
The SoN is a friendly place and becoming more international. I appreciate how people are brought together by the brown bag lunch and fruit breaks.”
Previous workplace: “I previously worked as a research assistant at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay in Mumbai, India. It is a highly advanced research institute and known all over India for its niche research. I liked the way they held in-house symposiums in our department. There were frequent talks with scientists from diverse scientific backgrounds, both national and international.
Another thing I really liked about working there was the way language was used as a gate to preserve professionalism and ease of working. India is a big country, it has more than 100 native languages; one can start to feel foreign even in India due to language, but we were strictly asked to keep our communication in English.”
Wishes: “In-house symposiums with representation from each group, poster sessions, a dinner and cultural activities. These are great for learning presentation and organization skills, look good on a CV and bring people closer together.”
Link: Research Group Ravoo