Undergraduate researcher Jazlyn Lopez Silva targets better medical implants

By Madeline Reinsel

Jazlyn Lopez Silva watched the nozzle of a 3D printer squirt out a dollop of a black, tarlike substance onto a flat plastic plate. It's not exactly what she was hoping for.

"I'm having problems with the printing," said Lopez Silva, a physics major with a nanoscience concentration in Virginia Commonwealth University's College of Humanities and Sciences. "It's been coming out really thick, and there are air bubbles."

But perfecting the consistency of this gooey material, which she hopes will eventually print in a flat, rectangular pattern, is a critical part of Lopez Silva's research in the lab of Daeha Joung, Ph.D., an associate professor of physics and the associate director of the nanoscience and nanotechnology Ph.D. program. With the lab's guidance, Lopez Silva's goal is for this polymer-based material to be safe to use in biomedical devices.

The polymer is also designed to be conductive, or able to transfer electrical signals from one part of the medical device to another. That's different from most polymers, which do not conduct electricity. Lopez Silva creates the material - also called a "bioelectronic ink" - by essentially stewing together several base compounds in a lab-grade pressure cooker.

"It changes the way it's structured and basically it makes it easier for charge to move through it," Lopez Silva said, explaining how the chemical process changes and straightens the polymer's structure. "Imagine a train - it's easier to go in a straight line than go around."

With a little fine-tuning, she hopes, the polymer could become the first building block for any number of implantable medical devices. She later will test how the material or a prototype device interacts with fibroblasts, one of the most common cells in the human body.

And while Lopez Silva is now at home in Joung's lab, where she is mentored by nanoscience and nanotechnology Ph.D. student David Hassouna, she's relatively new to research.

"I honestly didn't think about research too often up until last year," she said.

But Lopez Silva embraced it quickly and earned a summer fellowship through VCU's Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program. She met Joung at a reception hosted for UROP fellows: "I found his lab and I was like, that's really cool."

Though her polymer isn't cooperating just yet, Lopez Silva is always ready for a challenge: The rising senior started her undergraduate studies at another university - her previous major, she said, "wasn't challenging enough" - before transferring to VCU to major in physics.

"I really enjoyed the challenge and learning how nature and the world works," she said.

VCU has also given Lopez Silva, who is raising her 4-year-old daughter, the opportunity to live closer to her family. She spends free time with her family and three pets, often going on hikes, gardening and visiting museums with her daughter.

Lopez Silva also finds time to participate in VCU outreach events at local schools. After graduating, she hopes to start a graduate school program in physics.

"She always has positive energy," Joung said. "Her personality is very active, and she's very excited about the research."

And he noted that just like how her polymer transfers electricity, Lopez Silva's positive energy spreads: "That energy is transferred to me and to the other lab members."