Internal Symposium at CCIQS – 2014 edition

Once again as every year we celebrate our internal symposium here at CCIQS, and like every year, my students presented some of their progress with their research projects. This time, three students, from three different levels, present posters regarding some of the data they’ve obtained.

María Eugenia ‘Maru’ Sandoval presented a poster regarding the molecular dynamics simulations performed for the drug Imatinb and a family of calix- and thia-calix[n]arenes as published here and reported in this blog here. ‘Maru’ is now a first year grad student at the National University, UNAM, after spending a year working for a pharmaceutical company. Her research in the realm of photosynthesis has only begun recently, that is why we had to rely on some other data.

Luis Enrique Aguilar is researching cation-π interactions within the aromatic cavities of calix[n]arenes in order to find suitable leads among these, our favorite macrocyles, for designing extraction agents of heavy (toxic) metals. Luis Enrique is an undergrad student here at the State University who should finish this year and has shown some interest (threatened us) in writing his dissertation thesis in our research group.

Monserrat Enriquez is a PhD student at CINVESTAV under the joint supervision of Dr. Eddie López-Honorato and myself (Dr. Eddie is her principal advisor), her research project involves both theoretical calculations and synthesis of the leads for extraction agents for several Arsenic species. For the time being, Monserrat is here with us, far from her home on the north side of the country, for this semester in which we have to finish with the theoretical section of her work. Besides her research concerning calixarenes she is also running calculations on the interactions between graphene oxide and the aforementioned As species. We are very excited about working with such a complex yet simple material that has such an exciting electronic structure.

This symposium is always interesting and important in bringing our research projects closer to all the comunity of this center. And since symposium comes from the Greek meaning ‘drinking together‘, then lets raise our glasses and toast for the data to come!

Cheers!