The Battle Lab
The Battle Lab (run by Cooper Battle, pictured at right with the Lab Dog, Roulez) is a research group at Willamette University, in Salem OR. We are a bio-organic group with a particular interest in combining organic chemistry and biochemistry to make useful fluorescence sensors that can mimic biological function, and work within biological systems. Some of our news highlights can be found below!
Our senors focus on two main directions: those based off of folded nucleic acids, and those formed from supramolecular host-guest systems that work in a similar fashion to fluorescent proteins. I am particularly interested in designing sensors able to probe micro-RNA levels and localization in real time to better understand their role in the early progression of tumors, with an eye towards the long-term development of inexpensive, durable and straightforward systems for the early detection of cancer. For more information on my research, including current and past projects as well as collected techniques and publications, check out the research section of my website. Research is all about the people you work with, and I've had the chance to work with some fantastic students, so I also encourage you to check out some of my current and past research students!
I am also passionate about teaching, in lectures and labs as well as through mentoring in research settings and extra-curricular activities. I think strong foundations and the integration of investigation into early coursework is extremely important to developing the next generation of talented scientists. More information on my approach to teaching can be found on the teaching section of my website, including my teaching philosophy, material for some past and current classes, and a section devoted to outreach (currently under development).
Finding Cooper
You can get in touch with me via my willamette email at cbattle, or find me on Willamette's campus in the Olin Building, Room 317. In addition to always being happy to talk about my work, chemistry, or science in general, I love reading science fiction and fantasy and maintain a modest lending library of paperbacks in my office- feel free to stop by and borrow some of my favorites! If you're interested in my background and how I got here, you can find more information here
News
2022-2023 Highlights
- Welcome to new Battle Group Members Ciera Abrigo, Jasmine Shigeno, Nate Rutter, Edgar Villa, Mollie McGibbon, Ava Merritt, Maya Magee, Gavin Klipfel & Dhriti Sriram joining the lab for Spring 2023.
- Congratulations to Shelby Sawyer for being selected to present with her team at the International Genetically Engineered Machines Competition in October in Paris, France!
- Congratulations to Lab Alumni Hernán Chávez Avalos for graduating with his MS in Biotechnology and starting Medical School at Oregon Health Sciences University!
2021-2022 Highlights
- Congratulations to graduating seniors Julia Fectea & Shione Mochizuki!
- Congratulations to Julia Fecteau, Sabrina Kloft & Melissa Duncan for their poster presentations at the Murdock College Science Research Conference in Vancouver, WA
2020-2021 Highlights
- Congratulations to graduating seniors Elizabeth Larson, Helena Wetzel and Miguel Alonso-Rodriquez for successful senior presentations and theses!
- Welcome to new Battle Group Members Julia Fecteau, Melissa Duncan and Sabrina Kloft who will be starting research this summer as part of the SCRP and Webber programs.
- Congratulations to Elizabeth Larson for a great remote poster presentation at the 2021 Spring National ACS Meeting, given straight from the lab where the work was done!
- Congratulations to Shione Mochizuki for a well-done remote poster presentation at the Murdock College Science Research Conference
2019-2020 Highlights
- Congratulations to graduating seniors Isabel Solano and Hernán Chávez Avalos for successful senior presentations and theses, and a happy if virtual gradation.
- Congratulations to Elizabeth Larson on winning both the Portland Section ACS Scholarship and the very prestigious Willamette Presidential Scholarship!
- Welcome to new Battle group members Helena Wetzel, Miguel Alonso-Rodriquez, Shione Mochizuki and Juan Hernandez!
- Congratulations to Elizabeth Larson, Isabel Solano and Hernán Chávez Avalos for their poster presentations at the 1st Annual Oregon Bioengineering Symposium at Oregon State University in Corvallis, OR on November 22nd. A very special congratulations to Elizabeth for winning the Best Undergraduate Poster Award!
- Congratulations to Isabel Solano and Hernán Chávez Avalos for great poster presentations at the Murdock College Science Research Conference in Vancouver, WA on November 9th.
- Congratulations to Elizabeth Larson and Isabel Solano for great poster presentations at the Portland ACS's High School & Undergraduate Poster Symposium at Portland State University on October 20th!
- Congratulations to Elizabeth Larson, Isabel Solano and Hernán Chávez Avalos for a great set of talks to wrap up SCRP, with a nice dinner afterwards!
- Willamette Summer Collaborative Research Program picnic hosted by the Battle group, complete with a "periodic table" of cupcakes!
- Congratulations to Milla Bevens and Mark Power for great poster presentations at the Northwest Regional ACS Meeting at Portland State University in June!
2018-2019 Highlights
- Congratulations to graduating seniors, Milla Bevens, Allison Brink, Gwen Holtzman, Emma Olson & Mark Power! A wonderful set of students across two colleges.
- Spring 2019 Group Photo (below): Left to right: Hernan Chavez Avalos, Cooper Battle, Milla Bevens, Isabel Solano, Mark Power and Elizabeth Larson.
- The Battle Lab is taking shape! The Olis "Upcycled" 8453 Diode Array spectrophotometer in particular is a great addition to our instrumentation and capabilities, and the nucleic acid portion of our lab is ready to go. Next up: finishing the synthetic half of the lab.
- Welcome to several new group members- Reagan Dreiling, Isabel Solano, Hernan Chavez and Elizabeth Larson!
- Welcome to Milla Bevens and Mark Power, two new members of the lab working on their Senior Theses.
- The Battle Lab has a new space! We can now be found in room 318 of the Olin Science Center at Willamette University, where slow but steady renovations are underway.
2017-2018 Highlights
- Congratulations to Emma Olson on a summer research internship at the Air Force Research Labs at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, and Allison Brink on a summer REU at Penn State!
- A Jayawickramarajah Group Reunion/Battle Group Meetup at the ACS Meeting was a great time for renewing old connections and making new ones
- A successful and enjoyable 255th National ACS Meeting, with presentations given by Allison Brink, Francisco Sanchez-Conde, Emma Olson, Gwen Holtzman and many other Grinnell Chemistry Students.
- Congratulations to all of my research students for getting posters accepted at the 255th National ACS Meeting in New Orleans this Spring! Chloe Briney will be presenting in the Biochemistry section, Gwen Holtzman and Emma Olson will be presenting in the Undergraduate Research in Organic Chemistry, and Francisco Sanchez-Conde and Allison Brink will be presenting in the Undergraduate Research in Biochemistry section.
- Chaperoned a great group of students to the Midstates Consortium's Undergraduate Research Symposium in Physical Sciences at the University of Chicago, at which Emma Olson gave another poster presentation.
- Had a good trip with Emma Olson to the Midwestern Regional ACS Meeting in Lawrence, KS for her to present her work from the Summer and Fall.
- Glad to have Emma, Gwen & Allison continuing their research projects from the summer into the fall semester
- All of the new group members had a successful (and hopefully fun) summer of research, and all gave great poster presentations for the end of summer session. Looking forward to Emma's poster at the Midwestern Regional ACS meeting this fall, and Francisco, Gwen & Allison's posters at the National ACS Meeting next Spring!
- 4 new group members- Francisco Sanchez-Conde, Gwen Holtzman, Emma Olson and Allison Brink- are joining me for the summer (group picture below). Read more about them here. Francisco & Allison are working on projects related to sensing miRNAs in cancer, and Emma & Gwen are working on synthesizing novel naphthalene derivatives for sensors.
2016-2017 Highlights
- Group member Chloe Briney (2017) graduated with Honors, and is going on to a post-bac position at the NIH's National Cancer Center. Congratulations, Chloe!
- New group member, Chloe Briney (2017) is doing a Mentored Advanced Project this Spring on dual-loop quadruplexes as molecular logic gates.
- Very excited to be staying on a second year at Grinnell College!
- Presentation by Alex Schmiechen and Francisco Sanchez-Conde on miR-let-7a targeted molecular beacons at the Undergraduate Research Symposium in Biological Sciences & Psychology, Midstates Consortium for Math and Science in Chicago, IL from my BCM 395 classes independent projects.
- Took a great group of students to the Midstates Consortium for Math and Science at the University of Chicago (pictured below).
- Presentation by former undergraduate researcher Aaron Coulon on our work with degradable, miRNA-targeted delivery systems at the 72nd Annual Southwestern Regional ACS Meeting in Galveston, TX.
2015-2016 Highlights
- Cooper was hired at Grinnell College as a Visiting Assistant Professor
- Awarded Tulane 34 award for service, leadership and academic excellence during my graduate career.
- Defended my dissertation in April.
- Presented a poster at the 251st National ACS Conference in San Diego in March.
- High Throughput Host-Guest Sensing manuscript accepted at Chemical Communications as part of a special collection on Host-Guest Chemistry
- Gave a talk in the 27th Annual Frontiers in Nucleic Acids Symposium at the Southeastern Regional ACS Meeting in Memphis, TN
- Submission of final revisions of CA-II Inhibiton manuscript with Xiaozhu Chu & Janarthanan Jayawickramarjah
