UROP Research Mentor Project Submission Portal: Submission #812

Research Mentor Information
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Primary Research Mentor Name: Steven Lenhert
Research Mentor Preferred Pronouns: {Empty}
When potential research assistants are reaching out via email, what is your preferred honorific?: Dr.
Contact Email (FSU Email if affiliated): lenhert@bio.fsu.edu
Position Title: Faculty
FSU College (if applicable): Arts and Sciences
FSU Department or Non-FSU Organization Affiliation: Biological Science
Headshot (optional): https://cre.fsu.edu/system/files/webform/urop_project_proposal_portal/14686/lenhert_headshot.jpg

Additional Research Mentor(s)
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Research Assistant Supervisor (if different from above): Vincent Tocci
Research Assistant Supervisor Preferred Pronouns: {Empty}
Research Assistant Supervisor Preferred Honorific?: {Empty}
Contact Email (FSU Email if affiliated): {Empty}
Name of Other Faculty/Collaborator(s) (if applicable): {Empty}
Other Faculty/Collaborator(s) Preferred Pronouns: {Empty}
Other Faculty/Collaborator(s) Preferred Honorific?: {Empty}
Contact Email (FSU Email if affiliated): {Empty}

Overall Project Details
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Title of the Project: Construction of a robotic pin spotter for lab-on-a-chip applications
Project Keywords: robotics, printing, microarray, biosensor, drug discovery
Are you currently looking for research assistants?: Yes
Number of Research Assistants Needed : 6
Relevant Research Assistant Major(s):
Engineering

Project Location:: On FSU Main Campus
If the project location is off campus, does the research assistant(s) need to provide their own transportation?: {Empty}
Please select the choice that most accurately describes your expectations for the research assistant(s):: Partially Remote
Approximately how many hours a week would the research assistant(s) need to work?: 5-10
Roughly what time frame do you expect research assistant(s) to work?: Flexible schedule (Combination of business and outside of business. TBD between student and research mentor.)
Overall Research Project Description:
Miniaturization of laboratory devices is enabling mobile technologies capable of detecting environmental contaminants, diagnosing diseases, and discovering novel therapeutics. For example, the Lenhert lab has been developing arrays of sensors to carry out multiple tests on small volumes of biological or environmental samples.1-3 Another application is in drug discovery and precision medicine, where miniaturized arrays containing potential therapeutic drugs can be tested in a high throughput manner.4-6 These applications rely on integrating multiple biological materials onto a surface while retaining biological function. Our lab has developed methods using lipid-based inks in printing processes such as pin spotting to achieve this goal.7-9 
Pin spotting is a process by which pins can be dipped into an ink from a reservoir and transferred to a surface. This process can be carried out rapidly and reliably to enable production of arrays of multiple different materials. Construction of a robotic pin spotter using DIY or open source robotics will allow rapid fabrication of prototype devices. The arrays will be characterized optically, and quality control carried out in real time.10 Once such devices are constructed they can provide the basis for future autonomous experimentation for AI driven discovery and optimization of lab-on-a-chip devices.11  
References:
1.	T. W. Lowry, A. E. Kusi-Appiah, D. A. Fadool, S. Lenhert, Odor Discrimination by Lipid Membranes. Membranes 13, 151 (2023).
2.	P. Prommapan, T. W. Lowry, N. Brljak, D. V. Winkle, S. Lenhert, Aptamer Functionalized Lipid Multilayer Gratings for Label Free Analyte Detection. Nanomaterials MDPI 10, 2433 (2020).
3.	S. Lenhert, F. Brinkmann, T. Laue, S. Walheim, C. Vannahme, S. Klinkhammer, . . . H. Fuchs, Lipid Multilayer Gratings. Nat Nanotechnol 5, 275-279 (2010).
4.	T. N. Bell, A. E. Kusi-Appiah, V. Tocci, P. Lyu, L. Zhu, F. Zhu, . . . S. Lenhert, Scalable Lipid Droplet Microarray Fabrication, Validation, and Screening. Plos One 19, e0304736 (2024).
5.	A. Kusi-Appiah, T. Lowry, E. Darrow, K. Wilson, B. Chadwick, M. Davidson, S. Lenhert, Quantitative Dose–Response Curves from Subcellular Lipid Multilayer Microarrays. Lab Chip 15, 3397-3404 (2015).
6.	A. E. Kusi-Appiah, N. Vafai, P. J. Cranfill, M. W. Davidson, S. Lenhert, Lipid Multilayer Microarrays for in Vitro Liposomal Drug Delivery and Screening. Biomaterials 33, 4187-4194 (2012).
7.	L. Ghazanfari, S. Lenhert, Screening of Lipid Composition for Scalable Fabrication of Solvent-Free Lipid Microarrays. Frontiers in materials 3, 55 (2016).
8.	T. W. Lowry, A. Kusi‐Appiah, J. Guan, D. H. Van Winkle, M. W. Davidson, S. Lenhert, Materials Integration by Nanointaglio. Adv Mater Interfaces 1, 1300127 (2014).
9.	S. Lenhert, P. Sun, Y. Wang, H. Fuchs, C. A. Mirkin, Massively Parallel Dip‐Pen Nanolithography of Heterogeneous Supported Phospholipid Multilayer Patterns. Small 3, 71-75 (2007).
10.	O. A. Nafday, S. Lenhert, High-Throughput Optical Quality Control of Lipid Multilayers Fabricated by Dip-Pen Nanolithography. Nanotechnology 22, 225301 (2011).
11.	S. Liu, A.-T. Wei, H. Wang, D. Van Winkle, S. Lenhert, Combinatorial Mixtures of Organic Solutes for Improved Liquid/Liquid Extraction of Ions. Soft Matter 19, 6903-6910 (2023).

Research Tasks:
A robotic pin spotter will be designed and constructed using DIY or open source control systems such as a Raspberry Pi or and Ardurino system. The robot will be constructed and used to fabricate arrays. The resulting array quality will be characterized optically using camera systems and microscopy available in the lab. Further details related to the tasks will be determined based on the student’s abilities and availability. An ideal result of this project would be coauthorship on a paper that makes use of the arrays produced by the pin spotter.

Skills that research assistant(s) may need::
Required: Robotics
Recommended: Programming, chemistry, microscopy


Mentoring Philosophy:
I seek to understand student’s goals and current abilities and to provide guidance to enable them to achieve their goals. This involves providing opportunities as they appear. Examples of opportunities could be an experiment that the student could carry out, coauthorship on a publication, or involvement in a collaboration. As an interdisciplinary scientist, I value different ways of thinking and approaching research tasks. When working in groups I look for synergy. If I’m teaching a student a skill that I have myself, then I demonstrate it and then let the student repeat it. I also tend to think of my students as collaborators and appreciate learning from them as well. I use, and encourage use of deliberate practice, which is an approach to developing expertise based on solving well designed achievable goals using feedback and guidance from a mentor. I meet at least once a week with my research group where we discuss our research, get feedback from each other, and identify achievable goals. Examples of research goals could be to take steps towards constructing a device, design or carry out an experiment, analyze a data set, search the literature for relevant papers, work on some scientific writing and communication. I continue to practice these skills myself and to improve my mentoring as well, doing my best to be a good example. As Isaac Asimov once wrote, “education is not something that can be finished.” 
Reference:
https://jasonhaaheim.com/how-did-scientist-become-timpanist-met-orchestra/


Please provide a link to your publications, a video clip, or a website for your research project (if applicable):: https://www.bio.fsu.edu/lenhertgroup/publications.php
Please add any additional information here (if applicable)::
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Are you interested in participating in the UROP Research Mentor Roundtable?: Yes
Roundtable times and Zoom links:
Tuesday Sept 3, 2:30-3:00 pm
https://fsu.zoom.us/j/93514430344
Recording:
https://fsu.zoom.us/rec/share/-9DGE2TwlUR0Ed3sAjOg9MN8i7I5gwH1so2y4keeWkyxKBZloTA-LI5PvqrybSaO.L6Sk8DL8oTLgqqju

Roundtable Info:
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UROP Program Elements
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Mentor Handbook, FAQs, and Communication: Yes
UROP Performance Evaluation: Yes
Materials Grant: Yes
UROP Poster Presentation: Yes

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Year: 2024
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