Meghan received the Forensic Sciences Foundation Student Travel Grant Award. This award provides her with funding to attend the American Academy of Forensic Sciences 71st Annual Scientific Meeting in Baltimore, MD this February. The press release can be found here. Congratulations Meghan!
Nana-Hawwa Featured in "Today at UAlbany"
Nana-Hawwa’s research on identifying plant-based legal highs, and her recent conference presentation at the Undergraduate Research Symposium hosted by the Icahn School of Medicine at the Mount Sinai Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences was featured in “Today at UAlbany”. The article about her work can be found here.
Paper Accepted by ACS Chemical Neuroscience
Tianyu’s first-author paper titled “Impact on Glioblastoma U87 Cell Gene Expression of a Carborane Cluster-bearing Amino Acid: Implications for Carborane Toxicity in Mammalian Cells” was accepted by ACS Chemical Neuroscience.
Musah Lab Gets Some Pets
Stemming from a collaboration with the Department of Biology, the Musah Lab has some new friends! A pair of tropical fish (Bob and George), a few shrimp (Constance and Naomi), and hermit crabs (all named Chester) will call Musah Lab their home for the duration the experiments.
Allix Receives Graduate Fellowship
Allix received the College of Arts and Sciences United Development Corporation Life Sciences Graduate Fellowship for 2018-2019. Congratulations Allix!
Musah Lab Presents at NEAFS
Kristen, Meghan, Allix, Amy and Megan traveled to Bolton Landing, NY to attend the 2018 Northeastern Association of Forensic Scientists Annual Meeting. Kristen presented a talk titled “A LADI Doesn’t Lift a Finger: Laser Ablation Direct Analysis in Real Time Imaging-Mass Spectrometry (LADI-MS) of Psychoactive Small Molecules in Latent Fingermarks”. Meghan presented a talk titled “Sky High: Sorbent-Facilitated Headspace Mass Spectral Analysis for the Detection and Identification of Plant-Based Legal Highs”. Allix presented a talk titled “A Sticky Situation: The Chemometric Identification of Condom-Derived Residues by Direct Analysis in Real-Time High-Resolution Mass Spectrometry”. Amy presented a poster titled “Species Identification of Necrophagous Beetles by Chemometric Processing of DART-HRMS Chemical Signatures of Ethanol-Insect Suspensions”. Megan presented a poster titled “The World of Psychoactive Peppers: The Quantification of Yangonin in Piper methysticum aka ‘Kava’ by Direct Analysis in Real Time-High Resolution Mass Spectrometry”. Both Meghan and Amy received the Peter R. De Forest Best Presentation Award.
Musah Lab Presents at SciX
Professor Musah and Samira traveled to Atlanta, Georgia to present at SciX 2018. Professor Musah presented a talk titled “Application of Artificial Neural Networks to DART-HRMS Data for the Forensic Identification of Fauna and Flora”. Samira presented a talk titled “Deep Learning-based Workflow for Identification of Psychoactive Plant Types featuring a Direct Analysis in Real Time-Mass Spectrometry Database”.
Paper Accepted by Food Research International
Kristen’s first-author paper entitled “Spatial Distribution of Furan and 5-Hydroxymethylfurfural in Unroasted and Roasted Coffea arabica Beans” was accepted by Food Research International.
Musah Lab Presents at Chemistry Undergraduate Research Symposium
Nana-Hawwa and Allix presented at the 4th Annual Undergraduate Symposium of Chemistry Research. Nana-Hawwa gave an oral presentation titled “Development of Mass Spectrometric and Chemometric Tools for the Forensic Identification of ‘Legal High’ Psychoactive Seeds from Solanceae Plants“ and received the Best Presentation Award. Allix was the invited keynote student speaker.
Nana-Hawwa Presents at Mount Sinai Undergraduate Symposium
Nana-Hawwa presenting her poster.
Nana-Hawwa presented a poster at the Undergraduate Research Symposium hosted by the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences. She was awarded first place for the Outstanding Poster Award.
Dr. Parandaman Arathala Joins the Musah Lab
The Musah Lab welcomes post-doc Dr. Parandaman Arathala to the lab! Daman received his Ph.D. in Chemistry from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras Chennai.
Meghan Receives NIJ Fellowship
Meghan was awarded the prestigious National Institute of Justice Graduate Research Fellowship for her research titled “Remote Detection and Identification of Psychoactive Material Based on SPME-facilitated DART-MS-derived Headspace Chemical Signatures and Chemometrics”. This award was created to support graduate students who engage in research focused on the challenges of crime and justice in the United States. Congratulations Meghan!
Paper Accepted by Talanta
Allix and Samira’s paper titled “A Chemometric Strategy for Forensic Analysis of Condom Residues: Identification and Marker Profiling of Condom Brands from Direct Analysis in Real Time-High Resolution Mass Spectrometric Chemical Signatures” was accepted by Talanta. This is Allix’s first first-author paper.
Justine Featured in the UAlbany Research Report
Justine’s research was featured in the University at Albany’s 2018 Research Report. Her article can be found here on pages 15-16.
Professor Musah and Kristen Present at MIT
Professor Musah and Kristen traveled to MIT to present “Development of Laser Ablation Direct Analysis in Real Time Imaging Mass Spectrometry (LADI-MS)” at the MIT Nano Tool Talk Series in Cambridge, MA.
Paper Accepted by Analytical Chemistry
Tianyu and Megan’s paper entitled “Application of Direct Analysis in Real Time-High Resolution Mass Spectrometry to Investigations of Induced Plant Chemical Defense Mechanisms - Revelation of Negative Feedback Inhibition of Alliinase” was accepted by Analytical Chemistry.
Allix and Nana-Hawwa Receive IFW Awards
Allix and Nana-Hawwa both received the Susan Van-Horn Shipherd ’64 Women in Science Scholarship through the Initiatives for Women Foundation. Congratulations Allix and Nana-Hawwa!
Farm Visit
Professor Musah and Meghan traveled to an garlic farm in Schenevus, NY to collect garlic and analyze its headspace.
Meghan collecting headspace.
Professor Musah's Book is Published
Professor Musah’s book “Analysis of Drugs of Abuse” has been published. Both Kristen and Cameron are first authors for chapters in the book. Congratulations!
Paper Accepted by Analytical Chemistry
Samira and Justine’s paper, “Direct Analysis in Real Time-Mass Spectrometry and Kohonen Artificial Neural Networks for Species Identification of Larva, Pupa and Adult Life Stages of Carrion Insects” was accepted by Analytical Chemistry.