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Meet Our Sponsored Students

Furthering the next generation of aptamer researchers is key for the future. This year, we’ve chosen to provide sponsorships to top students to allow them the opportunity to attend Aptamers 2023. Get to know our sponsored students.

Zach Churcher

Postdoctoral Researcher from York University, Toronto

Get to know Zach with a Q&A

1. Could you tell me a little bit about yourself?

My Name is Zach Churcher, I am a postdoctoral researcher in the Johnson Lab at York University. Our research focuses primarily on structural and functional studies on a variety of aptamer-ligand systems, I primarily use NMR Spectroscopy to see how aptamer structures change in response to their ligands, and use ITC to quantify the interaction between aptamer and ligand.

2. What are you looking forward to the most at the Aptamer Conference?

I am most looking forward to traveling back to the conference again after a few years away, and hearing about all the wonderful science that has been conducted over the past year.

Zach, a sponsored student associated with the research program.

Débora Ferreira

Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Minho, Portugal

Get to know Débora with a Q&A

1. Could you tell me a little bit about yourself?

My name is Débora Ferreira and I’m a postdoc at University of Minho, Portugal. I’m working on the development of novel targeted strategies for treatment of triple negative breast cancer.

2. What are you looking forward to the most at the Aptamer Conference?

With this conference, I want to present my research findings over the last years. Also, I’m interested in hearing about the last cutting-edge findings from the aptamer field.

Debora, a sponsored student associated with the research program

Tathagata Pal

PhD student from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay

Get to know Tathagata with a Q&A

1. Could you tell me a little bit about yourself?

I am Tathagata Pal. I am PhD student in the Department of Biosciences and Bioengineering of the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay. I am pursuing my PhD in the Biosensor and Bioinstrumentation laboratory under the guidance of Prof. Soumyo Mukherji. I do my research on optimizing biosensors for the detection of environmental toxicants. 

2. What are you looking forward to the most at the Aptamer Conference?

I look forward to getting more profound insight into aptamer as a receptor for developing biosensors for the detection of analytes in real samples. I especially want to learn from the experts about the rate-limiting factors and their plausible mitigation to achieve the goal. I also want to discuss the possibility of getting specific aptamers for nonimmunogenic target analytes of the need for sensing from respective manufacturing companies. 

Tathagata, a sponsored PHD student associated with the research program