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ByCatherine Graham

Millions of developers use JavaScript to build websites and mobile apps, making it one of the most popular programming languages in the world. But according to Johns Hopkins researchers, thousands of JavaScript websites are vulnerable to a security flaw that could result in manipulating the site's URL or stealing a user's profile information.

Known as prototype pollution, the flaw allows attackers to modify, or "pollute," a prototype, which is a built-in property of a JavaScript object. An attacker who manages to alter a JavaScript object prototype can execute a variety of malicious actions.

With a framework they call ProbeTheProto, researchers from the Johns Hopkins Information Security Institute analyzed one million websites running on JavaScript and found that more than 2,700 websitessome of them the most visited in the worldhad multiple flaws that could expose them to prototype pollution.

Ten of the sites were among the top 1,000 most visited websites of the year, including Weebly.com, CNET.com, and McKinsey.com.

Yinzhi Cao

Assistant professor of computer science

"Only recently have researchers started looking closely at prototype pollution and realizing it's a matter of great concern," said cybersecurity expert Yinzhi Cao, an assistant professor of computer science in the Johns Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering. "Many in the developer community may not be aware that prototype pollution vulnerabilities can have severe consequences."

In Javascript, an object is a collection of related data or functionality; for example, a user account object may contain such data as usernames, passwords, and e-mail addresses. Once an attacker makes a change to an object prototype, it will affect how the object works throughout the entire application and opens the door for more serious vulnerabilities, Cao adds.

He and his team set out to the study this snowball effect using dynamic taint analysis, a method in which inputs to the application are labeled with a special "tainted" marker and the researchers observe how the tainted data propagates through the program. If the marker is still there at the program's output, the researchers know that the application is vulnerable to exploitable input attacks that could lead to some unplanned action.

"Imagine a very long pipe in a big black box and I want to know whether Points A and B are connected. If they are, I can put some toxic liquid at Point A to attack Point B. What we do is to drop a bit of red dye in the water at Point A and then observe the water color at Point B. If I can see Point B is also red, I know A and B are connected and then we can launch attacks," Cao said.

The researchers identified three major input attacks that can be caused by prototype pollution: cross-site scripting (XSS), cookie manipulation, and URL manipulation. Such vulnerabilities on public websites provide ample opportunities for cyber criminals to hijack passwords and install malware, among other nefarious activities.

Cao says that researchers have a responsibility to report prototype pollution vulnerabilities to website owners and even recommend the best patch for their code. Thanks to Cao's team sounding the alarm, so far 293 vulnerabilities have already been xed by developers.

"Organizations don't even know these vulnerabilities exist. Our ProbeTheProto tool can automatically and accurately detect a wide range of potential attacks. And we've found that many developers are happy that we are helping them stay ahead of cybersecurity threats," Cao said.

Computer science graduate students Zifeng Kang and Song Li contributed to the research. The team members will present their paper "Probe the Proto: Measuring Client-Side Prototype Pollution Vulnerabilities of One Million Real-world Websites," at the Network & Distributed System Security Symposium April 24-28 in San Diego.

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The biotech industry is, by all measures, one of the fastest growing and most successful sectors in the Commonwealth. But heres something that isnt growing fast enough: the representation of people of color among the biologists, computer scientists, and engineers who fuel the field. While Black people represent 13 percent of the US population, they are only seven percent of the biotech workforce; Hispanics now compose 18 percent of the countrys people, but only six percent of the workers in biotech.

For Black and Brown students, opening that gateway is particularly important. Income inequality by race is growing by leaps and bounds. These gaps will not be closed until we ease the pathway to the jobs that promise high wages, job ladders that bring people of color into management, and beyond money careers that offer the satisfaction of doing good while doing well. Surely this describes the vast array of companies in our region that are based in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).

There is something we can do to open these options faster: enable Dorchester Bay City to surge ahead and build a robust, ecologically sound, science park less than a mile from the majority-minority campus of the University of Massachusetts Boston.

Some 3,000 students are enrolled in UMass Bostons College of Science and Mathematics, where they major in Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Computer Science, and related fields. This is the labor force of the future, and it looks like America itself.

But for these talented STEM students to find their way into the heart of bio-science companies, they need experience. Such involvement must come from firms they can get to easily, companies that can open their doors to interns, co-op placements, and part-time jobs that are compatible with full-time study. Most UMass Boston students dont have the luxury of attending school without working at the same time. They have to earn enough money to pay for their college education and support their families. This is a fact of life for them.

If UMass Boston students are able to integrate their professional ambitions into their lives as students, they will speed toward the opportunities that biotech offers. Students are advantaged when their universities integrate experiential learning into their degree programs. And the closer those opportunities are, the more compatible they are with the life of the classroom and research lab that prepare students to be productive colleagues in STEM fields. The sooner Dorchester Bay City starts attracting large firms and startups, the sooner UMass Bostons students of color will begin to populate this industry.

We know this works because we have seen the explosive takeoff of science parks surrounding other universities. Twenty-five years ago, the Georgia Institute of Technology a public university in Atlanta was an island unto itself, full of engineering students and faculty with all kinds of capabilities but little industry nearby. Today, Georgia Tech is surrounded by mixed use science parks and innovation districts with residential units, ground floor retail/commercial space, office, research, and development for both industrial and academic uses. This focus on industrial engagement has been an essential element of Georgia Techs meteoric rise in sponsored research from $186 million to $1.2 billion. This has attracted notable global companies like NCR, AT&T, Emerson, Honeywell, Boeing, Accenture, Siemens, and countless startups that benefit from the innovative, diverse, and inclusive campus culture and talent.

These companies sponsor meaningful internships, co-ops, and part-time employment during their academic years, providing career-building experiences, early professional development, and critical income to sustain their education. Those students go on to high-paying technical careers, often in the firms where they worked part-time during their academic years. Faculty have seen investment in their labs and industry-based sabbaticals that keep them at the forefront of their fields. These are the kinds of opportunities that will be open to UMass Boston when Dorchester Bay City starts sprouting STEM-based industries next door.

Dorchester Bay City is the leading opportunity for long-term racial and class integration of biotech due to its proximity to UMass Boston, the most diverse research university in New England and the third most diverse university in the United States. The companies attracted to the neighborhood will find a wealth of talent and the chance of a lifetime to make good on their intentions to recruit and retain a scientific/technical workforce that befits the Commonwealth.

Katherine S. Newman is the System Chancellor for Academic Programs of the University of Massachusetts and served as Interim Chancellor of the UMass Boston campus from 2018-2020. Carl Rust is the inaugural executive director of Industry Engagement at the University of Massachusetts who has served for 25 years in various industry engagement leadership positions at Georgia Tech.

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The U.S. presidents chief medical adviser, an award-winning journalist and a computer scientist will receive honorary degrees and speak at University of Michigan commencement ceremonies this spring.

Journalist Maria Shriver will be the main speaker at the April 30 ceremony honoring 2022 graduates at Michigan Stadium. She has been recommended for an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree.

Physician and scientist Anthony S. Fauci will speak at the May 7 comeback ceremony, also at Michigan Stadium, for 2020 graduates who didnt have an in-person commencement because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Fauci has been recommended for an Honorary Doctor of Science degree.

Maria M. Klawe, a computer scientist, scholar and president of Harvey Mudd College, will deliver the address at the April 29 Rackham Graduate Exercises at Hill Auditorium. She has been recommended for an Honorary Doctor of Engineering degree.

Other honorary degree recipients, recommended by President Mary Sue Coleman and to be considered by the Board of Regents on March 24, are:

The information below about each recipient was provided by the Office of University Development and Events.

Shriver is a mother of four,an Emmy and Peabody award-winning journalist, seven-time New York Times best-selling author, NBC News special anchor, founder ofThe Womens Alzheimers MovementandShriver Media, and co-founder of the mission-driven brain health and wellness brandMOSH.

A trailblazer for empowering women, Shriver uses her voice and platforms toadvance pressing issues affecting women and womens health.

In 2010, in partnership with the Alzheimers Association,The Shriver Report: A Womans Nation Takes on Alzheimers reported for the first time that women are at an increased risk for the disease. She continues to fund research to figure out why that is, recently partnering with The Cleveland Clinic to launch the countrys first Alzheimers disease prevention center for women.

As first lady of California from 2003-10, Shriver worked on behalf of women and families, particularly those living on the brink of poverty.

Shrivers life and career are driven by her belief that everyone has the ability to be an architect of change and make the world a better place.Her media company, Shriver Media, promotes the power of media to do good and be of service. Its popular newsletter,The Sunday Paper, seeks to inspire hearts and minds, and elevate the voices of others who are moving humanity forward.

Shrivers latest books, the New York TimesbestsellerIve Been Thinkingand its companion,Ive Been ThinkingThe Journal,offer wisdom, guidance, encouragement and inspiration for those seeking to create a meaningful life of their own.

A distinguished scientist and physician, Fauci is director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and chief of the NIAID Laboratory of Immunoregulation at the National Institutes of Health. He has advised seven U.S. presidents through major global health crises, including outbreaks of HIV, West Nile virus, swine flu, Zika virus and Ebola.

Known for his straightforward explanation of complicated scientific facts, calm demeanor and subtle sense of humor, Fauci has been a trusted public voice on SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19.

He grew up in Brooklyn, New York, and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1962 from the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, and an M.D. in 1966 from the Weill Medical College of Cornell University.

Fauci joined the NIAID Laboratory of Clinical Investigation in 1968. His research on the pathogenesis and treatment of immunoregulation underpins current understandings of the regulation of the human immune response.

In addition, he led research efforts to understand how HIV impairs the immune system.

A principal architect of the U.S. Presidents Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief launched in 2003, Fauci advocatedfor increased AIDS research funding and access to experimental drugs.

Following anthrax attacks in the United States in 2001, Fauci worked to boost supplies ofsmallpox vaccine, bolster vaccine research and accelerate research against emerging diseases.

Fauci serves on the editorial boards of many scientific journals, and is author, co-author or editor of more than 1,400 scientific publications. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society.

Accolades include the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Robert Koch Gold Medallion, and the National Medal of Science.

Klawe began her tenure as Harvey Mudd Colleges fifth president in 2006. A renowned computer scientist and scholar, she is the first woman to lead the college since its founding in 1955.

Klawe has made significant research contributions in several areas of mathematics and computer science, including functional analysis, discrete mathematics, theoretical computer science, human-computer interaction, gender issues in information technology and interactive-multimedia for mathematics education.

Prior to joining Harvey Mudd College, Klawe served as dean of engineering and professor of computer science at Princeton University, and in several administrative and faculty positions at the University of British Columbia. Klawe also spent eight years with IBM Research in California, and two years at the University of Toronto. She received her Ph.D. in 1977 and Bachelor of Science degree in 1973 in mathematics from the University of Alberta.

Klawe has given talks at international conferences, national symposia and colleges across the U.S. and Canada about diversity in science, technology, engineering and mathematics disciplines and industries, gender and gaming, and lessons from her own career. She has devoted particular attention to improving K-12 science and mathematics education.

She is on the boards of Glowforge, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Alliance for Southern California Innovation and Math for America; chairs the board of EdReports.org; is a founding adviser of Parity.org; is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; and is a trustee for the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute in Berkeley.

Klawe received the 2014 Women of Vision ABIE Award for Leadership and was ranked No. 17 on Fortunes 2014 list of the Worlds 50 Greatest Leaders. She received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Canadian Association of Computer Science and the Achievement Award from the American Association of University Women, and is in the U.S. News STEM Solutions Leadership Hall of Fame.

As founder of Motown Records, Gordy is responsible forthe Motown Sound that reached across racial, political and social lines in the turbulent 1960s and transformed popular music.

He discovered and nurtured the careers of Smokey Robinson and The Miracles, Diana Ross and The Supremes, Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson and The Jackson5, Marvin Gaye, Lionel Richie and the Commodores, Martha Reeves & the Vandellas, TheTemptations, Gladys Knight & the Pips and many other acts.

Before becoming a songwriter, producer, director and entrepreneur, Gordy dropped out of high school to pursue a boxing career. He was a successful featherweight before shifting gears to pursue his real passion: songwriting.

On Jan. 12, 1959, with a family loan of $800 at 6% interest, he founded the music publishing company Jobete and the Tamla record label. He started his new company in a modest Detroit house emblazoned with an immodest sign, Hitsville, USA.Motown was incorporated in1960, the name a nod to his hometown.

In the 1960s, Gordy booked his artists into the top clubs and venues around the worldand moved them into television.He also was involved in the civil rights movement and released the recorded speeches of Martin Luther King Jr.

Gordy expanded into filmmaking with Mahogany, his directorial debut. Another movie, Lady Sings the Blues, garnered five Academy Award nominations.

Gordys numerous honors and awards include the Martin Luther King, Jr. Leadership Award, induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Rainbow Coalitions Man of the Millennium Award, the National Medal of Arts and a Kennedy Center Honor.

Gordys contribution to music and popular culture is chronicled in hisautobiography, To Be Loved: The Music, The Magic, The Memories of Motown.It was the basisfor his play, Motown the Musical,which premiered on Broadway in 2013.

Holt, the James Westfall Thompson Professor Emeritus of American and African American History at the University of Chicago, has written extensively about the experiences of people in the African diaspora, especially those in the Caribbean, Europe and the United States.

Holts study of Jamaicas economy, politics and society after slavery,The Problem of Freedom: Race, Labor, and Politics in Jamaica and Britain, 1832-1938, was awarded the 1995 Elsa Goveia Prize by the Association of Caribbean Historians. An earlier work, his study of emancipation in the American South, Black Over White: Negro Political Leadership in South Carolina during Reconstruction, received the Southern Historical Associations Charles S. Sydnor Prize in 1978.

Holts most recent works are, The Problem of Race in the 21st Century, Children of Fire: A History of African Americans, and The Movement: The African American Struggle for Civil Rights.

Holt received his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1965 and his Master of Arts degree in 1966 from Howard University. He earned his Ph.D. in American studies from Yale University in 1973.

Holt has taught at Howard University, Harvard University, U-M and the University of Chicago. He also was a visiting professor at the University of California, Berkeley.

He has been honored with fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, the Center for Advance Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University, and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

Other honors include U-Ms Presidential Initiatives Award and Yale Universitys Wilbur Cross Medal. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society.

Holt has served on the Council for the National Endowment for the Humanities and on the editorial boards of several academic journals. He has served as president of the American Historical Association and on the board of the American Council of Learned Societies.

A first-generation American who was born and raised in Detroit, Martin founded two companies and previously served as U-Ms athletic director.

He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Wittenberg College, a graduate degree in economics from the University of Stockholm in Sweden, and an MBA from U-M.

In 1968, Martin founded the First Martin Corp., a diversified real estate development company based in Ann Arbor. He founded the Bank of Ann Arbor in 1996 and serves as its chair.The bank has acquired five financial institutions serving southeast Michigan and today has more than 300 employees, 17 offices and just less than $4 billion in assets.

In 2000, Martin became U-Ms athletic director, serving in that position for 10 years. During his tenure, 13 facilities, including Michigan Stadium, were built or renovated.While chairing the Big Ten Athletic Directors, Martin played a leadership role in launching the Big Ten TV network.

Martin has taught economics at Muskingum College, Eastern Michigan University and the Stephen M. Ross School of Business.

His community service includes serving as president of the Washtenaw Land Conservancy, the Ann Arbor Public Schools Foundation Board and the Wittenberg University Board.The Ann Arbor News recognized Martin as a Citizen of the Year.

In 2015, former Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder appointed Martin to the City of Detroit Financial Oversight Board to monitor city finances coming out of bankruptcy.

A lifelong sailor, Martin was president of the United States Sailing Association.He also has served as a board member and president of the United States Olympic Committee leading up to the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, receiving its highest honor, the General Douglas MacArthur Award.In addition, Martin has served on the boards of the National Football Foundation and the Miami Dolphins.

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Newswise ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. Postdoctoral researchers who are designated Truman and Hruby fellows experience Sandia National Laboratories differently from their peers.

Appointees to the prestigious fellowships are given the latitude to pursue their own ideas, rather than being trained by fitting into the research plans of more experienced researchers. To give wings to this process, the four annual winners two for each category are 100 percent pre-funded for three years. This enables them, like bishops or knights in chess, to cut across financial barriers, walk into any group and participate in work by others that might help illuminate the research each has chosen to pursue.

The extraordinary appointments are named for former President Harry Truman and former Sandia President Jill Hruby, now the U.S. Department of Energy undersecretary for nuclear security and administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration.

Truman wrote to the president of Bell Labs that he had an opportunity, in managing Sandia in its very earliest days, to perform exceptional service in the national interest. ThePresident Harry S. Truman Fellowship in National Security Science and Engineeringcould be said to assert Sandias intention to continue to fulfill Trumans hope.

TheJill Hruby Fellowship in National Security Science and Engineeringoffers the same pay, benefits and privileges as the Truman. It honors former Sandia President Jill Hruby, the first woman to direct a national laboratory. While all qualified applicants will be considered for this fellowship, and its purpose is to pursue independent research to develop advanced technologies to ensure global peace, another aim is to develop a cadre of women in the engineering and science fields who are interested in technical leadership careers in national security.

The selectees are:

Alicia Magann: The quantum information science toolkit

To help speed the emergence of quantum computers as important research tools, Alicia Magann is working to create a quantum information science toolkit. These modeling and simulation algorithms should enable quantum researchers to hit the ground running with meaningful science as quantum computing hardware improves, she says.

Her focus will extend aspects of her doctoral research at Princeton University to help explore the possibilities of quantum control in the era of quantum computing.

At Sandia, she will be working with Sandias quantum computer science department to develop algorithms for quantum computers that can be used to study the control of molecular systems.

Im most interested in probing how interactions between light and matter can be harnessed towards new science and technology, Magann said. How well can we control the behavior of complicated quantum systems by shining laser light on them? What kinds of interesting dynamics can we create, and what laser resources do we need?

A big problem, she says, is that its so difficult to explore these questions in much detail on conventional computers. But quantum computers would give us a much more natural setting for doing this computational exploration.

Her mentor, Mohan Sarovar, is an ideal mentor because hes knowledgeable about quantum control and quantum computing the two fields Im connecting with my project.

During her doctoral research, Magann was a DOE Computational Science Graduate Fellow and also served as a graduate intern in Sandias extreme-scale data science and analytics department, where she heard by word of mouth about the Truman and Hruby fellowships. She applied for both and was thrilled to be interviewed and thrilled to be awarded the Truman.

Technical journals in which her work has been published include Quantum, Physical Review A, Physical Review Research, PRX Quantum, and IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology. One of her most recent 2021 publications is Digital Quantum Simulation of Molecular Dynamics & Control in Physical Review Research.

Gabriel Shipley: Mitigating instabilities at Sandias Z machine

When people mentioned the idea to Gabe Shipley about applying for a Truman fellowship, he scoffed. He hadnt gone to an Ivy League school. He hadnt studied with Nobel laureates. What he had done, by the time he received his doctorate in electrical engineering from the University of New Mexico in 2021, was work at Sandia for eight years as an undergraduate student intern from 2013 and a graduate student intern since 2015. He wasnt sure that counted.

The candidates for the Truman are rock stars, Shipley told colleague Paul Schmit. When they graduate, theyre offered tenure track positions at universities.

Schmit, himself a former Truman selectee and in this case a walking embodiment of positive reinforcement, advised, Dont sell yourself short.

That was good advice. Shipley needed to keep in mind that as a student, he led 75 shots on Mykonos, a relatively small Sandia pulsed power machine, significantly broadening its use. I was the first person to execute targeted physics experiments on Mykonos, he said. He measured magnetic field production using miniature magnetic field probes and optically diagnosed dielectric breakdown in the target.

He used the results to convince management to let him lead seven shots on Sandias premier Z machine, an expression of confidence rarely bestowed upon a student. I got amazing support from colleagues, he said. These are the best people in the world.

Among them is theoretical physicist Steve Slutz, who theorized that a magnetized target, preheated by a laser beam, would intensify the effect of Zs electrical pulse to produce record numbers of fusion reactions. Shipley has worked to come up with physical solutions that would best embody that theory.

With Sandia physicist Thomas Awe, he developed methods that may allow researchers to scrap external structures called Helmholtz coils to provide magnetic fields and instead create them using only an invented architecture that takes advantage of Zs own electrical current.

His Truman focus investigating the origins and evolution of 3D instabilities in pulsed-power-driven implosions would ameliorate a major problem with Z pinches if what he finds proves useful. Instabilities have been recognized since at least the 1950s as weakening pinch effectiveness. They currently limit the extent of compression and confinement achievable in the fusion fuel. Mitigating their effect would be a major achievement for everyone at Z and a major improvement for every researcher using those facilities.

Shipley has authored articles in the journal Physics of Plasmas and provided invited talks at the Annual Meeting of the APS Division of Plasma Physics and the 9thFundamental Science with Pulsed Power: Research Opportunities and User Meeting. His most recent publication in Physics of Plasmas, Design of Dynamic Screw Pinch Experiments for Magnetized Liner Inertial Fusion, represents another attempt to increase Z machine output.

Sommer Johansen: Wheres the nitrogen?

Sommer Johansen received her doctorate in physical chemistry from the University of California, Davis, where her thesis involved going backward in time to explore the evolution of prebiotic molecules in the form of cyclic nitrogen compounds; her time machine consisted of combining laboratory spectroscopy and computational chemistry to learn how these molecules formed during the earliest stages of our solar system.

Cyclic nitrogen-containing organic molecules are found on meteorites, but we have not directly detected them in space. So how were they formed and why havent we found where that happens? she asked.

That work, funded by a NASA Earth and Space Science Fellowship, formed the basis of publications in The Journal of Physical Chemistry and resulted in the inaugural Lewis E. Snyder Astrochemistry Award at the International Symposium on Molecular Spectroscopy. The work also was the subject of an invited talk she gave at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics Stars & Planets Seminar in 2020.

At Sandia, she intends to come down to Earth, both literally and metaphorically, by experimenting at Sandias Combustion Research Facility in Livermore on projects of her own design.

She hopes to help improve comprehensive chemical kinetics models of the after-effects on Earths planetary ecology of burning bio-derived fuels and the increasingly severe forest fires caused by climate change.

Every time you burn something that was alive, nitrogen-containing species are released, she says. However, the chemical pathways of organic nitrogen-containing species are vastly under-represented in models of combustion and atmospheric chemistry, she says. We need highly accurate models to make accurate predictions. For example, right now it isnt clear how varying concentrations of different nitrogenated compounds within biofuels could affect efficiency and the emission of pollutants, she said.

Johansen will be working with the gas-phase chemical physics department, studying gas-phase nitrogen chemistry at Sandias Livermore site under the mentorship of Lenny Sheps and Judit Zdor. UC Davis is close to Livermore, and the Combustion Research Facility there was always in the back of my mind. I wanted to go there, use the best equipment in the world and work with some our fields smartest people.

She found particularly attractive that the Hruby fellowship not only encouraged winners to work on their own projects but also had a leadership and professional development component to help scientists become well-rounded. Johansen had already budgeted time outside lab work at UC Davis, where for five years she taught or helped assistants teach a workshop for incoming graduate students on the computer program Python. We had 30 people a year participating, until last year (when we went virtual) and had 150.

The program she initiated, she says, became a permanent fixture in my university.

Alex Downs: Long-lived wearable biosensors

As Alex Downs completed her doctorate at the University of California, Santa Barbara, in August 2021, she liked Sandia on LinkedIn. The Hruby postdoc listing happened to show up, she said, and it interested her. She wanted to create wearable biosensors for long duration, real-time molecular measurements of health markers that would be an ongoing measurement of a persons well-being. This would lessen the need to visit doctors offices and labs for evaluations that were not only expensive but might not register the full range of a persons illness.

Her thesis title was Electrochemical Methods for Improving Spatial Resolution, Temporal Resolution, and Signal Accuracy of Aptamer Biosensors.

She thought, Theres a huge opportunity here for freedom to explore my research interests. I can bring my expertise in electrochemistry and device fabrication and develop new skills working with microneedles and possibly other sensing platforms. That expertise is needed because a key problem with wearable biosensors is that in the body, they degrade. To address this, Downs wants to study the stability of different parts of the sensor interface when its exposed to bodily fluids, like blood.

I plan not only to make the sensors longer lasting by improved understanding of how the sensors are impacted by biofouling in media, I will also investigate replacing the monolayers used in the present sensor design with new, more fouling resistant monolayers, she said.

The recognition element for this type of biosensor are aptamers strands of DNA that bind specifically to a given target, such as a small molecule or protein. When you add a reporter to an aptamer sequence and put it down on a conductive surface, you can measure target binding to the sensor as a change in electrochemical signal, she said.

The work fits well with Sandias biological and chemical sensors team, and when Downs came to Sandia in October, she was welcomed with coffee and donuts from her mentor Ronen Polsky, an internationally recognized expert in wearable microneedle sensors. Polsky introduced her to other scientists, told her of related projects and discussed research ideas.

Right now, meeting with people all across the Labs has been helpful, she said. Later, I look forward to learning more about the Laboratory Directed Research and Development review process, going to Washington, D.C. and learning more about how science policy works. But right now, Im mainly focused on setting up a lab to do the initial experiments for developing microneedle aptamer-based sensors, Downs said.

Sandia National Laboratories is a multimission laboratory operated by National Technology and Engineering Solutions of Sandia LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Honeywell International Inc., for the U.S. Department of Energys National Nuclear Security Administration. Sandia Labs has major research and development responsibilities in nuclear deterrence, global security, defense, energy technologies and economic competitiveness, with main facilities in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Livermore, California.

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