Mike Murcia
Ph.D. Candidate
Chemistry
Coming to IUPUI in 2001 to pursue an advanced degree in chemistry made a lot of sense for Mike Murcia. Having just finished his undergraduate studies at Ball State University, Murcia planned to pursue his master’s before attending medical school at IU. Today, some four years later, Murcia is still on campus following through on his desire to become a doctor — a doctor of chemistry.
“I talked with a lot of my friends who had entered medical school and heard stories of how it had really changed their lives,” says Murcia. “As I worked more and more on chemistry here, I found this to be a better fit for me. In the end, I believe this is what I really want to do.”
During his first semester at the School of Science, Murcia, like most graduate students, met and interviewed with a number of professors in pursuit of a research interest. Intrigued by Dr. Christoph Naumann’s ground-breaking work with quantum dots, Murcia soon found his niche.
Quantum dots are a type of fluorescent imaging probe. Although they have a number of applications, Naumann and Murcia are primarily interested in their capabilities for biological imaging. As imaging probes, quantum dots are extremely advantageous, Murcia says, because they’re brighter and more stable, allowing them to be used for longer periods of time than other commonly used alternatives.
“This project was completely different than anything Naumann had worked on before and that was particularly interesting to me,” says Murcia. “We’ve been able to come up with a new method for making quantum dots that’s slowly becoming received and accepted in the community.”
This fact became evident last spring during the American Chemical Society’s national convention where Murcia received an award for his poster presentation about the research.
“A lot of people were very interested in what we were doing and very surprised that we could pull this off,” Murcia says. “It’s difficult when you come up with a totally new way of approaching something to convince people it’s the right way or better than the way they’re currently doing it.”
Murcia says the School of Science’s close proximity to the medical school and hospitals has added new dimensions and benefits to the research. For example, collaboration with researchers at nearby Methodist Hospital led to the opportunity to image cancer cells.
“With all of these resources close at hand, you’re never limited in what you can do,” says Murcia. “As a researcher, there are so many different avenues you can take.”
While pursuing graduate research at IUPUI, Murcia had the opportunity to teach, earning recognition as the 2005 School of Science Teaching Assistant of the Year. Additionally, he has authored a book chapter entitled “Biofunctionalization of Fluorescent Nanoparticles.” The book, Nanotechnologies for the Lifesciences: Volume I, is scheduled for publication and release in the near future.
After completing work on his doctoral thesis sometime next year, Murcia hopes to eventually take his expertise with quantum dots from the university setting to industry.