News

May 2026

Whitacre research award and more

We are excited to announce that Dr. Gomez Pastora received the Whitacre Engineering Research Award for the 2025-2026 academic year. Furthermore, the senior class of ChE nominated her as the Most Influential Faculty Member.

2026 CHEGSA Poster Competition

 

  
During this year's CHEGSA Poster Competition, six of our students presented posters showing advancements and results in their research fields. Our team member Karla Mercedes (Vicepresident of CHEGSA) assisted with the organization of the event.  We are very proud of their efforts throughout the 2025-2026 academic year.

2026 BioMedJournal Club

                                                                                   
  
We are happy to announce that Santiago Rodriguez (Ph.D. Student) won the 2nd place for his presentation on the paper: "Iron Transport in Cancer Cell Culture Suspensions Measured by Cell Magnetophoresis"

April 2026

Covenant Health and Social Services Graduate Fellowship
 

We are happy to announce that Linh Nguyen T. Tran (Ph.D. Candidate)  been awarded a Covenant Health and Social Services Graduate Fellowship through Covenant Health.  We want to congratulate her for this honor.

February 2026

Graduate Student Research Support Award

We are happy to announce that Linh Nguyen T. Tran (Ph.D. Candidate)  been awarded a Graduate Student Research Support Award through the Texas Tech Graduate School.  We want to congratulate her for this honor.

WCOE Research Day 2026

During this year's WCOE Research Day, five of our students presented posters showing advancements and results in their research fields. We are really happy to announce that Minh Duy Phan (Ph.D. Student) won the 2nd place from the Chemical Engineering Department.

Minh Duy Phan: "Design, Fabrication, Characterization and Modeling of Additive Manufactured Devices For Label-Free Magnetic Cell Fractionation Using Novel Magnetic Nano Inks"

Linh Nguyen T. Tran: "Novel Magnetic Technology for Sickle Cell Disease Management​"

Karla Mercedez Paz Gonzalez: "Breast Cancer Stem Cells Magnetic Characterization and Isolation"

Rodrigo Hernandez: "Magnetically enhanced electrochemical systems for waste-to-resource conversion processes"

Santiago Rodriguez: "Magnetic Characterization of Healthy and Sickle Cell Disease Monocytes​"

January 2026

Spring 2026 New Ph.D. Students

Gomez-Pastora Research Group is pleased to welcome two new Ph.D. students Kaniz Fahima Rova, and Luangelis Bertel

December 2025

2025 BioMedJournal Club

 

We are happy to announce that Rodrigo A. Hernandez (Ph.D. Student) won the 2nd place for his presentation on the paper: "Strategy, Design and Fabrication of Electrochemical Biosensors: A Tutorial" 

November 2025

2025 CASFER Connect Symposium

Rodrigo A. Hernandez (Ph.D. Student) participated in the 2025 CASFER Connect Symposium hosted at MIT on November 6-8th. He presented a poster involving the progress of our research in the integration of magnetic fields and magnetohydrodynamic effects for the recovery of nitrogen from wastes, in order to produce fertilizers using a circular economy approach. 

2025 AIChE Annual Meeting

Doctor Jenifer Gomez Pastora and Raquel Vera (CHE Undergraduate) participated in the 2025 AIChE Annual Meeting in Boston on November 2nd-6th. Dr. Gomez participated in various presentations, delivering our progress on the application of magnetism for both biological and environmental applications, including breast cancer cell isolation, sickle and aged red blood cell analysis, and the electrochemical transformation of CO₂ into fuels and products. Raquel Vera presented a poster of the research she has been working on regarding the use of a portable magnetometer, the CTV, for sickle cell disease evaluation.

List of abstracts submitted:

1. R. Vera, K. Paz Gonzalez, L. Tran, J. Chalmers, J. Gomez-Pastora, “Portable Cell Tracking Velocimetry for Sickle Cell Disease Severity Prediction”, AIChE Annual Meeting, Boston (USA), November 2-6, 2025 (Poster Presentation).
2. P. Iyer, H. Choe, M. M. Rahman, J. Strayer, X. Wu, B. Karakuzu, J. Doon-Ralls, K. Landes, J. Gomez Pastora, A. F. Palmer, P. C. Desai, J. Chalmers, M. Zborowski, “High-Gradient Magnetic Separation and Phenotypic Characterization of Sickle Red Blood Cells”, AIChE Annual Meeting, Boston (USA), November 2-6, 2025 (Poster Presentation).
3. L. Tran, K. Paz Gonzalez, P. Iyer, H. Choe, J. Chalmers, J. Gomez Pastora, “High Resolution Magnetophoretic Characterization of Aged and Dysfunctional Red Blood Cells Using Cell Tracking Velocimetry”, AIChE Annual Meeting, Boston (USA), November 2-6, 2025 (Oral Presentation).
4. K. Paz Gonzalez, L. Tran, H. Choe, P. Iyer, J. Chalmers, J. Gomez Pastora, “Label-Free Magnetic Isolation of Red Blood Cells Based on Their Differential Iron Cargo”, AIChE Annual Meeting, Boston (USA), November 2-6, 2025 (Oral Presentation).
5. L. Tran, K. Paz Gonzalez, R. Farrell, K. H. Chen, J. Chalmers, J. Gomez Pastora, “Magnetic Characterization, Isolation, and Detection of Breast Cancer Stem Cells Via Label-Free Magnetophoresis”, AIChE Annual Meeting, Boston (USA), November 2-6, 2025 (Oral Presentation).
6. K. Paz Gonzalez, X. Wu, J. A. Abarca Gonzalez, C. Gonzalez-Fernandez, G. Diaz Sainz, L. Tran, I. H. Karampelas, J. Gomez Pastora, “Magnetic Field Assisted Electrochemical Transformation of CO2 into Value-Added Products”, AIChE Annual Meeting, Boston (USA), November 2-6, 2025 (Oral Presentation).

 

70th Annual Conference on Magnetism and Magnetic Materials 2025

Wrapping up a productive and inspiring week at the 70th Annual Conference on Magnetism and Magnetic Materials (MMM 2025) in Palm Beach, Florida! Our team, together with Dr. Kai Wu’s lab, shared exciting advances in magnetic nanomaterials, separation, and imaging technologies.

Presentations include:
AQ-05. Red Blood Cell Magnetic Property Monitoring Using Cell Tracking Velocimetry: Applications to Blood Banking and Sickle Cell Disease
CQ-06. Iron Oxide Magnetic Nanoparticles Synthesized by Wet Ball Milling: Evaluation of Hyperthermia Properties
CQ-07. PEG-Functionalized Spherical and Cubic Iron Oxide Nanoparticles for Magnetic Hyperthermia in Serum-Based Environments
CF-07. Integrated Numerical and SAXS Investigation of Ultra-Small SPIONs Magnetophoresis and Separation in High Field and Gradient Fields
FC-05. Exploiting the Distinct Fe Metabolism of Breast Cancer Cells to Analyze and Separate Stem Tumor Cells