{"id":5061,"date":"2026-05-13T15:09:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T19:09:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/?post_type=profiles&#038;p=5061"},"modified":"2026-08-10T12:00:24","modified_gmt":"2026-08-10T16:00:24","slug":"adrienne-garcia","status":"publish","type":"profiles","link":"https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/profiles\/adrienne-garcia\/","title":{"rendered":"Adrienne Garcia"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignleft size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"400\" height=\"599\" src=\"https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/05\/Garcia-Adrienne.jpg\" alt=\"by Corban Swain\" class=\"wp-image-5595\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1;object-fit:cover;width:200px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/05\/Garcia-Adrienne.jpg 400w, https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/05\/Garcia-Adrienne-200x300.jpg 200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>University of New Mexico<\/strong><br>Faculty Advisor: Prof. Mercedes Balcells-Camps<br>Research Supervisor: Daniel Torres Sune<br>Department: Biological Engineering<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:0px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Biography<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Adrienne Garcia is a chemical and biological engineering student at the University of<br>New Mexico. Seeing the challenges women face in accessing preventive and cancer care,<br>Adrienne aspires to pursue a PhD and lead translational research to improve access to and<br>the quality of cancer interventions and treatments. As an MSRP intern, Adrienne works in the<br>Edelman Lab under Dr. Mercedes Balcells-Camps, contributing to two different biomaterials<br>projects: creating bone bio-ink using salmon and biochip technology for diagnosing<br>depression. At her home institution\u2019s King Lab, she studies protein-nucleic acid interactions.<br>Previously, she conducted research in the Francis Lab at the University of California,<br>Berkeley, focusing on drug-loading experiments. Adrienne\u2019s commitment to improving the<br>world through research earned her the 2026 Barry Goldwater Scholarship in addition to being<br>recognized as Chemical and Biological Engineering\u2019s Outstanding Sophomore of the year at<br>the University of New Mexico.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\"><br><strong>Biofunctionalization of Field-Effect Transistor (FET) Biosensors for<br>Diagnosing Depression<\/strong><br>Adrienne Garcia1, Daniel Torres Su\u00f1\u00e92, Dr. Mercedes Balcells-Camps2<br>1Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of New Mexico<br>2Institute for Medical Engineering and Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology<br>Major Depressive Disorder affects hundreds of millions of people worldwide, yet its diagnosis<br>still relies largely on subjective clinical assessments and self-reporting rather than quantitative<br>measurements. The development of graphene and molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) based<br>biofunctionalized FET-biosensors would allow for real time detection of biomarkers related<br>to depression found in biological fluids and a quantifiable way to diagnose and monitor<br>depression. In this project, graphene-based biosensors were biofunctionalized through a<br>surface immobilized biorecognition elements specific to Interleukin-6 (IL-6), an inflammatory<br>protein and target biomarker related to depression. These biosensors were tested for their<br>ability to accurately detect concentrations of IL-6 in protein solutions, blood, tears, saliva<br>and urine against Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assays (ELISA). Additionally, MoS2<br>surfaces were evaluated for biofunctionalization potential with the promise of a cheaper, easier<br>manufacturing process in comparison to graphene.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":5459,"template":"","profile_category":[25],"class_list":["post-5061","profiles","type-profiles","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","profile_category-2026-interns"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profiles\/5061","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profiles"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/profiles"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profiles\/5061\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5700,"href":"https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profiles\/5061\/revisions\/5700"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"profile_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profile_category?post=5061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}