Craig Buckley
Undergraduate Researcher

E-mail: buckley.114@osu.edu
Hometown: Fairfield, Ohio

B.S., Chemical Engineering, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, Expected 2009
Engineering Intern, Clippard Instrument Laboratory, Cincinnati, OH, Summer 2006

Craig Buckley has joined Dr. Winter’s lab as an undergraduate researcher. He is a sophomore chemical engineering major at OSU pursuing a Bachelors degree with the biomolecular coursework option. Craig has worked as an engineering intern at Clippard Instrument Laboratory performing testing on and creating 3-D models (using SolidWorks) of a line of flow control valves and related pneumatic products. He was also part of a team that created an autonomous robot for the freshman Fundamentals of Engineering for Honors design class. The robot was engineered to perform tasks in a simulated chemical plant, and placed in the top sixteen of the tournament held for the program. Craig is a recipient of OSU’s Distinguished Merit Scholarship for National Merit Finalists.  

I am currently working on a project to attach various ligands to gold nanoparticles for insertion within the pores of agarose gel. The nanoparticles serve as anchors for the ligands, allowing them to essentially remain attached to the agarose gel without changing the structure of the gel itself. This technique has the potential to add a wide range of functionality without a need to chemically modify the backbone of the gel. A fluorescent indicator will be used as the first ligand to test and refine the procedure for inserting and maintaining the gold nanoparticles in the gels network of pores. After this procedure has been developed, the effects and uses of different functional groups inserted into the gels will be explored. Modifications of this general approach are also possible. For example, while permanently attached ligands are certainly useful, a controlled release of the nanoparticles and their attached ligands would allow for the possibility of a drug-deli
very type system.