THE AFONIN LAB AT UNC CHARLOTTE
EST. 2015
News from 2018
December 5, 2018
Our manuscript published in Nucleic Acids Research (Click here to read it!) was highlighted by Michael Berger in “Controlling immune response expands the possibilities of therapeutic nucleic acid technologies” at Nanowerk (Click here to read it!).
December 4, 2018
Our paper "RNA–DNA fibers and polygons with controlled immunorecognition activate RNAi, FRET and transcriptional regulation of NF-κB in human cells" was published in Nucleic Acids Research! Congratulations to Weina, Melina, Dr. Panigaj, and Dr. Afonin! (Click here to read it!)
December 2, 2018
Our paper "Broccoli Fluorets: Split Aptamers as a User-Friendly Fluorescent Toolkit for Dynamic RNA Nanotechnology" was published in Molecules! Congratulations to Morgan, Tanya, Justin, Lauren Rackley, Lauren Lee, Dylan, Weina, Sameer, Steven, Dr. Striplin, and Dr. Afonin as well as members of the CHEM 4090 (Nanobiochemistry) class: Shrija, Elijah, Jonathan, Emman, Gabriel, Kinzey, Saja, Bailey, and Michael!
November 16, 2018
Weina, Justin, and Morgan presented at the Multifunctional Materials Workshop held at NC State University! Congratulations to Justin and Morgan for winning 1st and 2nd place.
October 29, 2018
Congratulations to Dr. Afonin for being elected a full member of Sigma Xi,
the Scientific Research Honor Society!
October 10, 2018
Our paper "RNA fibers as optimized nanoscaffolds for siRNA coordination and reduced immunological recognition" has just been published in Advanced Functional Materials! Congratulations to Lauren R, Justin, Dr. Juneja, Jackie, Lauren L, Kyle, and Dr. Afonin! (Click here to read it!)
October 5, 2018
Congratulations to Dr. Afonin for receiving a second annual Certificate of Recognition for his reviewing activity of ACS Publications!
September 14, 2018
Our paper "Magnetic nanoparticles loaded with functional RNA nanoparticles" has just been published in Nanoscale! Congratulations to Justin and Dr. Afonin.
August 28, 2018
"Activation of Split RNA Aptamers: Experiments Demonstrating the Enzymatic Synthesis of Short RNAs and Their Assembly As Observed by Fluorescent Response" has been published in the Journal of Chemical Education! Congratulations to Sameer, Morgan, Dr. Striplin, and Dr. Afonin.
August 14, 2018
Dr. Afonin was recognized for outstanding dedication, loyalty, and guidance to the ACS Project SEED students we've had the opportunity to work with!
August 2, 2018
A multidisciplinary proposal between UNCC, NCSU, and UNCG has been selected for an FY2019 Stage II UNC Inter-institutional Planning Grant (IPG) award. Congratulations to Dr. Afonin!
July 26, 2018
Our recent publication in Nano Letters has been featured on EurekAlert! by AAAS!
July 25, 2018
Congratulations to our NanoSURE students Yelixza Avila (left) and Melina Richardson (right) for presenting their research at UNC Charlotte's Summer Research Symposium! Congratulations to Melina for winning 2nd Place in the Biomedical, Natural Sciences, and Public Health category!
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June 25, 2018
Our recent publication in Nano Letters has been featured as a nanotechnology spotlight at Nanowerk!
June 13, 2018
"Structure and composition define immunorecognition of nucleic acid nanoparticles" has been published in Nano Letters! Congratulations to Justin and Dr. Afonin.
June 4, 2018
Our book chapter "Reconfigurable Nucleic Acid Materials for Cancer Therapy" has been published in Nanooncology: Engineering Nanomaterials for Cancer Therapy and Diagnosis! Congratulations to Morgan, Weina, Justin, Dr. Panigaj, and Dr. Afonin.
May 8, 2018
Congratulations to Sameer for being awarded a Summer Graduate Fellowship Award from the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences!
May 1, 2018
The Association of Nanoscience Graduate Students has had the honor of winning the Community Service Award from UNCC's Graduate & Professional Student Government! Congratulations to everyone involved for their efforts and to Justin, ANGS' President during the 2017-2018 year!
April 29, 2018
Our lab hosted a Strawberry DNA Extraction and Facepainting table at this year's Science & Technology Expo! Great job to all the young scientists who came out and joined us and a huge thank you to our local friends at Patterson Farm for donating the strawberries for our experiments!
April 18, 2018
"Dynamic behavior of RNA nanoparticles analyzed by AFM on a mica/air interface" has been published in Langmuir! Congratulations to Sameer, Morgan, Dylan, Jared, Beamlak, and Dr. Afonin! (Click here to read it!)
April 6, 2018
Justin represented our lab at the 18th Annual Graduate Research Symposium at UNC Charlotte! He gave an oral presentation entitled "Immunogenicity of Nucleic Acid Nanoparticles."
March 23-27, 2018
Dr. Afonin presented a poster entitled "Therapeutic Nucleic Acid-based Nanoparticles with Controlled Immunomodulatory Properties" at the 2018 Keystone Symposia Conference on Cancer Immunotherapy: Combinations in Montreal, Canada!
March 16, 2018
Justin and Morgan gave poster presentations at the 5th Annual RNA Symposium at the RNA Institute of University at Albany!
March 9, 2018
Weina presented her research at the 34th Annual Meeting of the Southern Biomedical Engineering Conference!
March 5-7, 2018
Thank you to Dr. Roger Chammas for visiting our campus from São Paulo, Brazil, to give a series of lectures on the biology and treatment of cancer! Thanks also to everyone who joined us to learn more about this area of research! More information about this outreach program can be found here.
March 1, 2018
Dr. Afonin served as an Academia Panelist at the 18th Annual Colloquium "Working Together to Break Through the Barriers of Cancer Research" held by NCI Fellows & Young Investigators. More information about the event can be found here!