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James K. Ferri, assistant professor of chemical engineering at Lafayette, has received a grant from the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD) for a three-month research visit to the Max Planck Institut für Kolloid und Grenzflächenforschung (MPIKG) in Golm-Potsdam, Germany.
Ferri is working with Reinhard Miller, a prominent researcher in the field of interfacial dynamics and group leader of the Soluble Monolayers Group at MPIKG. Ferri’s research this summer will study the effect of polymeric surfactants, additives used by biochemical engineers in large-scale cell cultures, on the mechanical properties of lipid membranes, the double-layers of biological fats that comprise the outside of cells.
Ferri’s grant proposal, “Penetration of Lipid Monolayers by Polymeric Surfactants,” received highly favorable peer reviews and was unanimously approved by the grant committee in the U.S. office of the German-based DAAD.
Animal cells are often cultured on large scales because of the materials they secrete, including ones used in pharmaceutical products, says Ferri. Polymeric surfactants are added to the cell culture medium because they help protect the cells against mechanical disruption (getting ripped apart by fluid stresses.)
“The mechanism of action is two-fold,” Ferri explains. “They coat the surfaces of bubbles and attenuate the stress generated by bubble rupture, and they adsorb to the cell membrane, adding mechanical strength.”
Studying how lipid membranes interact with polymer surfactants can provide insight into the protective effect of the additives and provide a rational basis for their use, he adds.
Ferri has worked closely with Lafayette students on advanced research projects. He advised Marquis Scholar Dan Connolly ’02 (Meadville, Pa.), who graduated last month summa cum laude with honors in chemical engineering, on his senior thesis, “Calibration of Process Shear Conditions Using Shear Marker Fluids: Hybridoma Cell Death as an Indicator of Hydrodynamic Shear.” A paper based on the thesis (co-written by Ferri and Connolly) received first prize at the mid-Atlantic regional conference of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers March 16-17 at Virginia Polytechnic Institute. Connolly, a member of Phi Beta Kappa who earned a 4.0 grade point average at Lafayette, will present the paper again at the institute’s national meeting in November in Indianapolis, Ind. He took top honors among 28 entrants from mid-Atlantic colleges and universities who participated in the student research competition at Virginia Tech. He also made presentations with Ferri at Rohm and Haas in Spring House, Pa., and the monthly meeting of the Lehigh Valley Section of the Instrumentation, Systems, and Automation Society.
Ferri mentored EXCEL Scholar Tim Wetzel ’02 (Selinsgrove, Pa.), who also graduated summa cum laude in May, in a study involving adsorption from solutions of surfactant mixtures. The publication based on the research is being prepared. In Lafayette’s EXCEL program, students assist faculty with research while earning a stipend.
Along with Shyamal Majumdar, Kreider Professor of Biology, Ferri is leading a continuing EXCEL project this summer with chemical engineering major Ryan Collins ‘03 (Whitehouse Station, N.J.) on “Factors Affecting the Shear Induced Death of Hybridoma Cells.”
Three Lafayette senior chemical engineering majors are scheduled to conduct honors thesis projects next school year under Ferri’s supervision: Collins, “Effect of Amphiphiles on Hydrodynamic-Induced Death of Hybridoma Cells Suspensions”; Alanna Cleary of Bloomsburg, Pa., “Extraction of Energetics Using Supercritical CO2 / Surfactant Mixtures”; and Maria Mignogna of Pittsburgh, Pa., “Characterization of Novel Capillary Condensation Membranes.”
Ferri has published his research in conference and meeting proceedings of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers and publications such as Advances in Colloid and Interface Science, Colloids and Surfaces, and Journal of Colloid and Interface Science. Along with co-author Scott Moor, assistant professor of chemical engineering, Ferri received recognition for third best paper at the American Society for Engineering Education regional meeting this April in West Point, N.Y. He has given talks at AIChE annual meetings, ACS Colloid and Surface Science Symposia, and a Society of Formulation Chemist’s Meeting. He was also research chemist at American Cynamid in Princeton, N.J.
Ferri joined Lafayette’s chemical engineering department in January 2001. His teaching areas include momentum, heat, and mass transfer, separations processes, and laboratory applications. His research interests include interfacial phenomena, bioengineering, and applied math. Ferri received a bachelor’s degree and Ph.D. in chemical engineering from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Md.
A National Leader in Undergraduate Research. Alanna Cleary ’03 presented honors research she did under the guidance of James Ferri, assistant professor of chemical engineering, at the American Institute of Chemical Engineers’ regional conference.