Emily Creedon '09 To Present At International Science Conference

Rivers senior Emily Creedon may not have enjoyed as much time at the beach as other vacationing students this past summer, but she more than made up for it in time spent on important research in the laboratory. For seven weeks Emily participated in an internship with Bruker Daltonics in Billerica, where she studied the effects of anti brain tumor drugs in mice.

Bruker Daltonics is a subsidiary of the Bruker Corporation, a research and science equipment manufacturing company based in Bremen, Germany. Creedon labored in the field of mass spectrometry, working with two mass spectrometry experts, a professor from Brandeis University, and a research scientist from the department of neurosurgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School.

I learned all about mass spectrometry, which is an important analytical science used to identify compounds, determine their structures, and gather other information based on their mass,” she said.

A mass spectrometer is a machine that determines the mass of the substance or molecule in question, thus facilitating study of that chemical. Creedon learned to use the spectrometer and how to interpret the information it provides. She also worked in mass spectrometry imaging (MSI), a cutting-edge subset of mass spectrometry science.

“I had the daily opportunity to run samples, amass data, and draw conclusions, and many who work with mass spectrometry still don’t know much at all about MSI.”

Her project involved using MSI to experiment with tissue samples from mice fed with anti brain tumor medicine, and thus detect the presence and effects of the drug molecules in the brain, kidney and liver of the mice.

“My project had two goals: using my data and conclusions, I wrote an ‘Application Note,’ which detailed information about MSI and outlined the results of the project. An app note is an internal publication that is used to inform customers about different machines and their applications, helping customers understand a machine’s capabilities. The second goal was to have the project accepted into the Federation of Analytical Chemistry and Spectroscopic Societies annual conference (FACSS).” Creedon said.

While her “app note” is currently in Bremen, at the base marketing communications department of Bruker Corp., the fact that the study was accepted to be a full presentation at the FACSS conference means that, much to her excitement, Creedon will be the presenting author at the conference, held this year in Reno, Nevada, where she will give an approximately 25 to 40 minute presentation to scientists from across the globe.

“I learned a lot of pure science but that was not where the only value of the internship lay. Though I mostly worked with the applications manager, I also was able to obtain a comprehensive view of the entire company. I accompanied a salesman on a visit to UMass Amherst; I had days where I worked with the marketing department, the research and development department, and I even sat in on some meetings with the president and owner of the company. The business experience I gained will be invaluable to me as I make decisions about my future, moving forward into the world of business,” she said.

Creedon credits her love of the combination of science and business to a freshman year biology course with Kim Kopelman, Rivers’ science department chairwoman, and it was Kopelman who assigned her the internship with Bruker—one of three highly coveted summer science internships that the school offers each year.

Creedon will be giving a presentation regarding her internship to the Rivers community on September 26 in Hutton Commons. All are encouraged to attend.