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The prospect of using nanoparticles to target specific maladies in the human body forms the basis of research taken on by chemical engineering major Kaushal Silwal ’07 (Katmandu, Nepal).
Conducted with James Ferri, assistant professor of chemical engineering, the project focuses on the development of the application in which capsules assembled with nano wall thickness might someday act in specific regions of the body where problems occur.
The two are collaborating in Lafayette’s distinctive EXCEL Scholars program, where students conduct research with faculty while earning a stipend. The program has helped to make Lafayette a national leader in undergraduate research. Many of the more than 160 students who participate each year share their work through articles in academic journals and/or conference presentations.
Along with the research he has conducted at Lafayette, Silwal spent the past summer at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces in Golm, Germany. The opportunity to conduct such fascinating research both at Lafayette and abroad proved a rewarding experience for the chemical engineering major.
“I’ve been interested in biotechnology since high school, but I never understood what that exactly meant. It’s such a broad term and hard to define, ranging from numerous applications to concepts,” says Silwal. “Now that I’ve taken classes, studied, and conducted this research, I understand what biotechnology means for me and I’ve narrowed my focus.”
According to Ferri, Silwal’s research has focused on examining various materials that can be used to make capsules that are micro in size but nano in thickness, meaning that they would be about one-billionth of a meter in wall thickness, or 10 to the negative ninth meter.
The process uses electrostatic self-assembly of polymers, which involves the study of how polymers of different structures would be used to make the nanocapsules. The process produces thin films with material properties that can be controlled with precision.
“It would be like saying the effect of the whole is often determined from the sum of the constituents, so we vary the constituents to see how the properties of the whole capsule change,” Ferri explains.
In the long term, a similar process could be the foundation for injecting nanocapsules into someone who had, for example, an infection. The capsule could be used to target the specific area that is infected, as opposed to taking an oral medication, which is ingested into the body and can have harmful side effects.
The process being used in Silwal’s EXCEL project involves state-of-the-art nanotechnology, which Ferri believes will clearly play an increasing role in both the life sciences and the electronic industries in the near and long term.
“Any opportunity for an undergraduate to have first-hand experience with techniques of nanotechnology is obviously beneficial,” he says. “It makes the EXCEL program very attractive to students, as they can get the experience they’re interested in but also be compensated for it.”
Silwal plans to use his summer research experiences as a springboard for both possible publication and as the groundwork for his honors thesis.
“Attending Lafayette has provided me with outstanding opportunities to learn more about my chosen field,” he says. “I loved Lafayette the second I walked onto campus and the professors in my department have been great. The classes are small enough that you really get to know the professors. They make it their priority to help students whenever they can. It’s more like a family.”
Aside from his academic endeavors, Silwal is on the executive board of the Delta Rho fraternity and the event planner for the American Institute of Chemical Engineers’ Lafayette Chapter. He also is a member of The Lafayette and sings in the Concert Choir.
As a national leader in undergraduate research, Lafayette sends one of the largest contingents to the National Conference on Undergraduate Research each year. Forty students were accepted to present their research at this year’s conference.