{"id":14538,"date":"2016-09-08T08:23:48","date_gmt":"2016-09-08T13:23:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/college.unc.edu\/?p=14538"},"modified":"2024-07-02T16:28:57","modified_gmt":"2024-07-02T16:28:57","slug":"nancyallbritton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/?p=14538","title":{"rendered":"Nancy Allbritton develops new technologies for biomedical applications"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Nancy Allbritton is the Kenan Distinguished Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Chemistry and chair of the UNC<\/span>\/NC<\/span>State Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering. Her research focuses on using techniques from chemistry, physics, engineering, and materials science to develop new technologies for biomedical\u00a0applications.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u00a0When you were a child, what was your response to this question: \u201cWhat do you want to be when you grow\u00a0up?\u201d<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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When I was in elementary school, I told people that I wanted to be a physicist. I have no idea why \u2014 but it sounded like a cool word and something you had to work hard at. Obviously, I didn\u2019t become that, but for as long as I can remember I always wanted to be some type of scientist.<\/p>\n

Share the pivotal moment in your life that helped you choose research as a career\u00a0path.<\/strong><\/p>\n

My parents always encouraged reading, particularly science, and so they had a great influence on me. My dad would getScience News <\/em>in the mail and would give it to me to read. It was always really exciting and engaging with tons of new, cool stuff in it. My grandfather liked to take things apart. I\u2019d spend a week with him and we\u2019d take old TVs apart and put them back together. We\u2019d turn them into bookcases and other things. That got me really interested in building, constructing, designing, and testing\u00a0things.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s an interesting thing that\u2019s happened during your\u00a0research?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Some of the most interesting moments come from crazy ideas \u2014 when the students just test their own limits to see what kind of cool stuff they can do and not worry about it. Not knowing too much is a good thing. The unknown creates some of the most fun moments in the lab. I always find myself pleasantly\u00a0surprised.<\/p>\n

One of these students, Yul Wang, ended up making a technology we built a company on. We had developed this technology that was cumbersome and difficult to use, and he had an idea that involved using a needle to separate viable, single cells. I thought to myself, \u201cAwe man, a needle?\u201d I worried researchers would hurt themselves. But it worked. The company, called Cell Microsystems, is located in Research Triangle Park and is doing quite well.<\/p>\n

\"nancy_in_the_rain\"<\/a>
This past year, Allbritton traveled to New Zealand and hiked the Milford Track \u2014 a widely known tramping route located amidst mountains and temperate rain forest in Fiordland National Park in the southwest of the South Island.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For the month of September, UNC<\/span> Research is focusing on the theme of \u201cbusiness.\u201d Using your personal experiences, how does scientific research translate in the business\u00a0world?<\/strong><\/p>\n

One of the measures of success in the lab is creating products that have a commercial use. Do other people want to use it or did we just make a gadget that only we want to use? Our goal is simple but elegant devices that solve novel biomedical problems. We commercialize everything we do in one way, shape, or\u00a0form.<\/p>\n

What advice would you give to up-and-coming female researchers in your\u00a0field?<\/strong><\/p>\n

There\u2019s no secret path to success. It doesn\u2019t matter how smart you are or what your background is \u2014 just work hard and don\u2019t look for shortcuts. Everyone I know who is really successful works hard. Also, enjoy the fun that is science. It allows you to learn new things every day. I never get bored. I can\u2019t think of a better way to have spent my\u00a0life.<\/p>\n

Story courtesy of Endeavors magazine\u2019s Women in Science<\/a> Wednesday series.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nancy Allbritton’s research focuses on using techniques from chemistry, physics, engineering, and materials science to develop new technologies for biomedical applications.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":14540,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[339,26,1806,80,39],"class_list":["post-14538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-natural-sciences-mathematics","tag-chemistry","tag-college-of-arts-and-sciences","tag-engineering","tag-physics","tag-unc-chapel-hill"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14538"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14538\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47846,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14538\/revisions\/47846"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}