Patrick McEnaney	University of Massachusetts Lowell Department of Chemistry Ryan Research Group

SENIOR RESEARCH:

For my senior research, I am working on blood plasma of mytilys edulis. With the use of size exclusion chromatography compounds from the plasma of mussels can be separated and analyzed to reveal any retention of metals.  With use of a solid state size exclusion filter, which prevents all components with a weight greater than 3000 Daltons, the three smaller compounds are separated and a size exclusion column can used to separate these compounds further.  Once separated the UV-Vis absorption patterns of the compounds can be observed and samples prepared for direct current plasma atomic spectroscopy, which will indicate the concentration of specific metals that each compound retains.