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KEVIN MILLER

With a slight turn of the tweezers holding it, an inch-long, mirrored chip reflects the face of its creator.

Less obvious than Kevin Miller’s smile are tiny filters on the chip’s surface that he hopes will one day replace the electronic components inside computers.

Miller, a second-year student in the Interdisciplinary Materials Science Graduate Program, is developing a filter that can either capture or let through certain frequencies of light on demand. His optoelectronic device could replace current metallic components, allowing for potentially more energy-efficient computing.

“Working with light is the coolest thing in terms of science – at least, in my mind,” Miller said.

“It surrounds us in our everyday lives, so working in a field where I get to better understand and use it for a specific technology is exciting.”

The Jefferson City, Mo., native said he’s looking forward to a trip to Oak Ridge National Laboratory this month to use their equipment to fabricate his device.

KELSEY BEAVERS

Beavers describes microRNA as a “master puppeteer of gene networks” – a regulatory molecule that, if overactive, can be devastating for patients.

She’s working with Craig Duvall, assistant professor of biomedical engineering, developing nanotechnology that could deliver drugs for a broad range of applications, including regulating overactive microRNA so tissue can regenerate.

That means faster healing of foot wounds in diabetic patients. Skin healing for burn patients. Bone, kidney and liver regeneration.

“That’s why the engineering of the drug carrier is so important,” Beavers said. “We want to be sure we’re only regulating microRNAs in the diseased tissue. By controlling the makeup of the nanoparticle that delivers the drug, we can time our delivery, too. Maybe we only want to knock out the microRNA for a certain length of time.”

Beavers, who received her undergraduate degree from Georgia Tech, just finished her qualifying exam and has approval from her Ph.D. committee to move forward.

“It gives you momentum. You know that you have a specific plan of action. It’s exciting to just go full throttle and begin to knock out a lot of these experiments you’ve designed,” she said.