News

🤩🙏Thank you RSC Chemical Biology for featuring our paper in an Impact Science infographic!🙏🤩

The small Ultra-Red Fluorescent Protein is a self-labeling protein. The smURFP-tag substrate is fluorogenic to monitor delivery.

https://doi.org/10.1039/D1CB00127B

Joseph Zorn joins the lab as an Undergraduate Researcher!

Erik A. Rodriguez won first prize in the photographs category of the Elemental Art Contest sponsored by the ACS Division of History of Chemistry (HIST) & the American Chemical Society (ACS)! The images show fluorescence of europium (III) oxide powder excited with UV light. Works were submitted in May 2020 and the awards were delayed a year. Time flies by in a pandemic!

🎉Our paper is online!🎉
The small Ultra-Red Fluorescent Protein (smURFP) is a self-labeling protein, like Halo- & SNAP-tags! Modified biliverdin is fluorescent when covalently attached & quenches fluorescent cargo.

Congratulations John-Hanson Machado, Richard Ting, & John Y. Lin!

Published in RSC Chemical Biology: https://doi.org/10.1039/D1CB00127B

Leena Zitoun Joins the Lab as an Undergraduate Researcher!

The Rodriguez Lab Research was Featured by MatTek Life Sciences.

MatTek is happy to introduce the first of our Sharing Your Science series! Read more about @erin_rod_phd and his lab's work on the development of smURFP using MatTek Dishes. #sharingyourscience https://t.co/inRQRimEy7

— MatTek Life Sciences (@MatTekLifeSci) February 2, 2021

Sara Mattson Joins the Lab as a Graduate Student!

Congratulations to Erik A. Rodriguez for winning Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN) 2020 #EverydayFluorescence for #RealTimeChem #ChemAtHome week!

https://cen.acs.org/education/outreach/Best-ChemAtHome/98/web/2020/12

🌊🐚Always have a shell in your pocket & sand in your shoes! Shells are excited with UV light to produce blue fluorescence.🐚🌊#RealTimeChem #ChemAtHome #EverydayFluorescence pic.twitter.com/vv7EwOMAHy

— Erik A. Rodriguez (@erin_rod_phd) December 2, 2020

🧼🧽Palmolive dish soap is extremely fluorescent under UV light and an excellent example of everyday fluorescence!🧽🧼#RealTimeChem #ChemAtHome #EverydayFluorescence pic.twitter.com/vrA5ojLVZc

— Erik A. Rodriguez (@erin_rod_phd) December 1, 2020

I'd like to be under the sea in an octopus' garden in the shade. My garden is moss balls in water with orange extract. The UV lasers excite the extract & chlorophyll emitting cyan & red fluorescence, respectively.#RealTimeChem #ChemAtHome #EverydayFluorescence #FluorescenceFriday pic.twitter.com/IQLo49wu2R

— Erik A. Rodriguez (@erin_rod_phd) December 4, 2020

I would like to share my favorite fluorescent specimens. These rocks are from my home town of El Paso, TX. My mom & I found the rocks on a night hike in the desert last December. 1. 254 nm, 2. 385 nm, & 3. white light. #RealTimeChem #ChemAtHome #EverydayFluorescence pic.twitter.com/d6vmAtmH0u

— Erik A. Rodriguez (@erin_rod_phd) December 3, 2020

🍊Freeze damaged oranges fluoresce yellow under UV light. The fluorescence is caused by rupture of the oil glands & the molecule tangeretin, a polymethoxylated flavone.🍊#RealTimeChem #ChemAtHome #EverydayFluorescence pic.twitter.com/ZjHioD2bHV

— Erik A. Rodriguez (@erin_rod_phd) December 5, 2020

Congratulations to Erik A. Rodriguez on receiving the Addgene Blue Flame Award! The award is in recognition of the 100+ requests for pLenti-smURFP (https://www.addgene.org/80349/). Addgene has shared 586 samples in >25 countries for the Rodriguez Lab!

Congratulations to Erik A. Rodriguez on winning the 2020 Optical Society (OSA) and Optics & Photonics News (OPN) Photo Contest! Erik will receive a canvas-stretched print, a $250 Amazon gift card, and publication of the winning image in Optics & Photonics News.

Everyday Beauty: Who knew something you eat every day could look so beautiful? Table salt (NaCl) imaged by polarization microscopy with a Nomarski prism.

—Erik A. Rodriguez, The George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA

https://www.osa-opn.org/home/gallery/photo_contests/photo_contest_2020/