Personal Career Development Plan Update

Personal Career Development Plan – Update

2007-10-12

Personal data

Name: Sina Simone Saxer

Date of birth: 1980

Nationality: Swiss

Languages: German (mother tongue), English

Home University

Surface Science and Technology HCI F-536

Wolfgang-Pauli-Str. 10 CH-8093 Zürich Switzerland

Link: http://www.surface.mat.ethz.ch

Marie Curie Host University

IFM

581 83 Linköping Sweden

Link: http://www.liu.se

Degree entitling to doctoral studies

September 2005: Master of Science in Chemistry, Prof. E. Constable, Department of Inorganic Chemistry, University of Basel

Education

2004-2005 Master Studies at the University of Basel, Department of Inorganic Chemistry, Prof. E. Constable

Studies in Chemistry at the University of Applied Sciences, Division Industry, Department Chemistry, Muttenz BL, Switzerland

1996-1999 Apprenticeship as a chemical laboratory assistant at Ciba Specialty Chemicals AG, AZM, Muttenz BL, Switzerland

1993-1996 High school in Wollerau SZ, Switzerland

1986-1993 Lower grade: Primary school in Wollerau SZ, Switzerland

Research experience

Oct. 04 -Aug. 05 Master work, University of Basel, Prof. E.Constable, Inorganic Chemistry Department, Title: Study of chiral octahedral complexes containing a 4,4’ –bis( O-bornyl)-2,2’-bipyridine ligand.

Aug. 2004 Trends in Nanotechnology Conference (TNT), Segovia, Spain, Poster- presentation, Title: Controlled co-evaporation of silanes for nanoimprint stamps.

Feb. 04 -Aug. 04 Chemist FH, Surface chemistry, Laboratory of Micro- und

Nanotechnology, Paul Scherrer Institute, Villigen AG Switzerland. Purpose: The development of a better anti-adhesive layer process for silicon wafer that are used for hot embossing features.

2000-2004 Several vacation jobs:

SynphaBase, Muttenz BL Switzerland Pentapharm, Aesch BL Switzerland

Ciba Specialty Chemicals, Research, Div. Additive, Plant Rosenthal, Basel BS Switzerland

University of applied sciences, Muttenz BL Switzerland

1999-2000 Laboratory assistant at the Process development group of the Division Additive (HALS-Focus Factory) supervised by Dr. A.Kastler, Ciba Specialty Chemicals, McIntosh, Alabama USA. Purpose: Support of the production plant, Optimization of a new light stabilizer additive.

1996-1999 Practical training as laboratory assistant, Process development at the Division Additives, supervised by Dr. Sommerlade, Ciba Specialty Chemicals, Schweizerhalle BL Switzerland. Purpose: Get an experience of the usual lab techniques and transform the research procedure into industrial processes.

EST Project

Title: Cavities in coiled-coil polypeptides as nano-reactors for the production of gold nano-particles

Supervisor: Prof. Ingemar Lundström, Department of Physics and Measurements technology, biology and Chemistry

Dr. Thomas Ederth, IFM

Where: Forum Scientium Sensing Science Early Stage Research Training Centre, University of Linköping

Duration: 6 Months

Description: The cavities of a protein fragment called RHCC will be used as a

nanoreactor to produce nanoparticles of a defined size. RHCC is known as very stable. It is a part of the tetrabrachion protein, which forms the surface of the staphylothermus marinus bacterium and resists

temperatures up to 120°C. Its right-handed coil-coiled structure is adequate, as the structure is formed out of four helices, which are providing four implemented cavities of a maximum diameter of 8.4 Å (defined by the van der Waal radii of the other molecules).

Following the formation of metal-nanoparticles in dendrimers, complex metal ions will be forced into the cavities of the protein. To obtain the metal nanoparticles, the implemented metal ions have to be reduced to the metal. There are three possible ways to reduce the ions, whereas a possible degeneration of the protein has to be avoided. It can be done either by the addition of a chemical reducing agent, by electrochemical reduction or by photoelectrical reduction.

Goal: The implementation of metal ions, such as gold chloride, platinum chloride or silver chloride, into the cavities of the RHCC proteins, followed by the application of several reduction methods, in order to obtain gold nanoparticles. Furthermore, the development of a proper analysis, to prove the existence of the encapsulated ions and

nanoparticles.

Project summary

In a time frame of six month several different approaches where made to determine whether gold (II) chloride hydrate can enter the RHCC or not. The used analysis methods are done on following instruments:

Surface Plasmon Resonance Quartz crystal microbalance

MALDI-ToF Mass spectrometry

Circular dichroism spectrometry UV-Spectrometry

The investigation where mainly done at the unreduced gold (III) chloride hydrate but the reduction with sodium borohydride in solution was also tested. Changes of the structure and an interaction with the RHCC were observed, if gold (III) chloride hydrate was added to the RHCC solution. Although the tests looked very promising the reduction of the gold (III) hydrate could not be proved.

Due to the fast agglomeration of the His-tagged RHCC and the lack of new and fresh RHCC without His-tag, some tests were not made and some of the old results could not be repeated with non-agglomerated RHCC and are therefore not proved.

Finally the very important question whether the Gold / Gold (III) chloride hydrate is inside or outside could not be demonstrated.

However, this first investigation of the RHCC and the gold in solution, lead to many new ideas for the future of the project and showed its difficulties and problems. The gained results will hopefully support following EST-students or PhD’s that will continue this very fascinating project.

All the results and methods were described in a short report. A hardcopy and the electronic version were given to the supervisor, Prof. I. Lundström and the Marie-Curie- EST

responsible of the University of Linköping, Dr. St. Klintström.

After the EST-position in Linköping

As I wrote in the previous version of the Personal Career Development plan, I used the time in Linköping to look for a PhD-position with a related project in surface sciences. Due to private reasons, I searched mainly in Switzerland. After my arrival I had several interviews and to choose between three possible positions.

Finally, I started my PhD in June 06 at the Material Sciences Institut at the ETH (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology) Zürich in Switzerland. The project title is “Mimicking nature’s high-strength adhesives to render surface non-fouling”, it is supervised by Prof. M. Textor, Dr. S. Tosatti and Dr. St. Zürcher. Since the biofouling process is also a matter of the applied physics group, it might allow collaborations between ETH and LiU.

I have to remark that I enjoyed the exchange to the University of Linköping very much. The project was very interesting and gave me a lot of new experience. This definitely helped to find a PhD-position, too. I had a very nice time, thank you very much.

Future plans

In the close future, I will certainly concentrate onto my PhD-project at the ETH Zürich. Thereby I will have to attend to some topic related classes and collect enough credit points. Depending on the progress of the PhD-project, I will as soon as possible present some data at conferences and in publications.

The project is in cooperation with a start up company. It is a good link towards industry and it might be helpful in future.

Papers in international peer reviewed journals

Helmut Schift et al, Nanotechnology,16, 2005, 171-175

Sunggook Park, Sina Saxer, Celestino Padeste, Harun H. Solak, Jens Gobrecht and Helmut Schift, Microelectronic Engineering, Vol. 78-79, 2005, 682-688

Participation in workshops, summer schools, study visits and

tutorials

During the training period at Linköping University, I was a member of the doctoral

programme Forum Scientium. Within this I participated in the Forum Scientium seminars every second week.

I was also a member of the research division of Molecular Physics. Within this, I participated in weekly research seminars.

Reports

A number of protocols for handling and characterization of the RHCC (right-handed coiled coil polypeptide) have been generated, and the efforts were summarized in an extensive and thorough report.

Communications in international conferences

No participation in international conferences during the six-month training period at Linköping University. I finished my Master exam shortly before I started my EST, and started my PhD-studies after the training period.

Courses and acquisition of complementary skills

(as communication and language skills, project management, ethics, team building, training on specialised instruments/equipment etc.)

During the six-month training period, I had the opportunity to get training on the following state-of-the-art instruments from experienced researchers:

Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR)

Quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation (QCM-D)

MALDI-ToF Mass spectrometry

Circular dichroism spectrometry UV-Spectrometry

FPLC

Gel electrophoresis

The Forum Scientium seminars and the Division of Molecular Physics seminars gave good training in oral communication.