Ritchie Chen (Academic Co-Chair)

I worked at the Molecular Foundry in the Lawrence National Berkeley Lab up on the hill this summer.  I did research on peptide inspired polymers called peptoids.  Basically I would synthesize various polymers with different side chains and then image my samples under Scanning Electron Microscopy to determine what kind of nanostructures they would fold into.  These nanostructures have various applications in drug delivery, such as the delivery of siRNA, and can coordinate metal ions such as zinc.  The focus of my research was on 3 nm thick sheets in solution.