Cassi Wentz's Research Interest
Concentration of HIV viral particles in blood of adolescent and infant individuals can be below detection range. Locally concentrating viral particles in blood samples can lead to faster detections and prognosis. To uncover techniques to elucidate this dilemma a simulation on 100nm red fluorescent polystyrene is conducted to locally concentrate particles by exploiting the techniques of fluorescent correlation spectroscopy, optical trapping, and polymer science. A successful simulation and recreation the HIV virus to a high concentration will allow these techniques to be applied directly to the aforementioned problem.
