Student investigating the harmful world of plastic nanoparticles By Dr. S. Sutton

Ms. Zainab Jabor (UNE Pharm.D. Class of 2026) joined the Sutton Lab (Dr Steven (Steev) Sutton, Assoc. Prof.) in the Summer of 2022, as a Dean’s Summer Fellow. In the lab, she helped establish and grow three cell lines and learned about the fascinating but potentially harmful world of plastic nanoparticles. Ms. Jabor presented the poster titled “Translocation of Polystyrene and Polymethacrylate Nanoparticles Across Caco-2 and HT-29 Cell Monolayer” at the First Annual Maine Research Symposium on Biomedical Science and Engineering and at the Maine Pharmacists Association Fall Convention, both in Portland, ME. And during the Fall semester she continued to work on a report which would eventually become the manuscript “Effects of Digestion, Cell Culture Media, and Mucous on the Physical Properties, Cellular Effects, and Translocation of Polystyrene and Polymethacrylate Nanoparticles” published in Toxics 11(8): 708-720. Working in the Sutton Lab provided Ms. Jabor with the opportunity to apply the sterile techniques she learned in pharmaceutics lab while learning cell culture research