Hasjim receives Hilldale research award

Chemical engineering student Petersen L. Hasjim was one of 91 UW-Madison students who received 1999 Hilldale Undergraduate Research Awards for senior-year research proposals. Petersen has worked with Professor Juan de Pablo and graduate student Dan Miller for the last three semesters. His Hilldale research project, which will be a continuation of work that he began last semester, involves the stabilization of enzymes with aqueous formulations of trehalose and borate during freeze-drying. He will work toward developing and optimizing formulations that best protect desiccation- and freeze-sensitive enzymes.

The use of trehalose/borate mixtures as protective agents for unstable biological and pharmaceutical products is being patented by Professor de Pablo and Dan Miller. Professor Horacio Corti, a collaborator from Argentina, and Rebeccah Anderson, a former UW chemical engineering undergraduate student, are co-inventors.