ChE MS Student Wins CaNCURE People’s Choice & Top Poster Award

CaNCURE is a partnership between Northeastern University and Dana-Farber / Harvard Cancer Center funded by the National Cancer Institute. The program provides a hands-on research experience and one-on-one mentoring by leading Boston researchers in cancer nanomedicine.  This program is specifically designed for engineers and scientists with an interest in performing cancer or nanomedicine research.

Aida Lopez Ruiz is an exchange student from URV in Tarragona, Spain currently completing her MS degree in the Webster Lab. Ms. Lopez-Ruiz enjoys studying at Northeastern and would like to return to complete her PhD.

At the CaNCURE Poster Session on June 14, 2017, students gathered in the Cabral Center to present their research at an annual competition. With a poster titled “Silver Palladium and Silver Platinum Anti- Microbial and Anti-Cancer Agents”, Ms. Lopez Ruiz won the award of People’s Choice and Top Poster. The research on the poster is also the theme of her master’s thesis, and it was the result of four months of work in the lab. “It was incredible because I didn’t expect to win. I was very honored because it is just the beginning of my research. It was also only my second time presenting a poster,” she recalls.

The topic was synthesizing a new type of nanoparticles to kill multi-resistant bacteria. At the same time, the nanoparticles try to kill cancer cells. “The beginning was impossible. It was hard to find a way to synthesize the nanoparticles. It took a month and a half to do that part,” Ms. Lopez Ruiz remarks.

Previously, Ms. Lopez Ruiz worked in the area of bioreactors and hopes to work in biomedical research after she receives her doctorate. “I want to work in research. I like research and I want to do it all my life. I think that biomedical research is an interesting field,” she declares.

Related Departments:Chemical Engineering