Professor Vivian Wu's Research Opens Door for High School Student

Posted June 22, 2010

The Biosensor Research Project headed by Dr. Vivian Wu at the Pathogenic Microbiology Laboratory has opened the door for high school student Rebecca Ye.  Dr. Wu's biosensor projects which is currently being headed by Master of Science in Food Science & Human Nutrition student, Xiao Guo, is using nanotechnology and molecular approach to develop biosensors to identify pathogens. Guo has received several graduate awards regarding her research at Dr. Wu’s Pathogenic Microbiology Laboratory including the 4th prize of Z. John Ordal Oral Graduate Student Competition IFT Food Microbiology Division (2009), the Top presentation and 3rd place of commercialization competition of the 12th graduate student Expo (2010), and Chinese American Food Society Graduate Student Scholarship (2010).

Rebecca J. Ye, who is a Bangor high school student and works with Xiao in developing nanoparticle-amplified immunosensor, was named the U.S. winner of the 2010 Stockholm Junior Water Prize (SJWP) – the most prestigious international competition for water-related research, and will represent U.S. in International Stockholm Junior Water Prize Competition, Sweden.

Becky said “It has been a great pleasure to work with Xiao Guo. I would never have been able to achieve anything – or even begin to comprehend the mechanism of the QCM – without her help, which has been invaluable. Xiao dedicated countless hours in the lab during the past year to helping me, whether it was optimizing the assay or collecting and analyzing data. She has been there for me every step of the experiment, and helping me with technique and patiently explaining things when I didn’t understand, sometimes more than once. Her work ethic has been inspirational, and I greatly appreciate everything that she has done.”