Personal Bio
Ransom believes that chemistry is the key to understanding all fundamental interactions in life, its applications and implications are far reaching and is used in numerous different fields. The versatility and interdisciplinary nature of chemistry is why he chose to pursue a Ph.D in this field. Ransom graduated from NC State with an Honors B.S in chemistry and is continuing his education in the Ph.D program here. He has been doing research with the Xiao lab since January of 2022 as an undergraduate student and is now a second year graduate student. In his free time he enjoys building model kits and he has an interest in films.
Research Summary
Ransom’s current research project is focused on using high-throughput sequencing to design an intelligent way to generate cooperative binding split aptamers from parent sequences without the need for tedious trial and error. This will significantly improve the ease at which CBSAs can be generated and has the potential to generate a variety of new and improved aptamers to be used for various sensing applications. In the past Ransom has helped discover a new dye to be used in the dye-displacement assay and implemented this dye into a sensor for the colorimetric detection of THC in saliva.
In the lab, Ransom is in charge of, or helps maintain, a few different pieces of equipment such as our DI water purification system, gel imaging system, and RT-PCR and PCR systems. He also contributes to other students’ work by assisting them with aptamer characterization using the enzyme digestion assay and strand displacement assay.
Publications List
- Canoura J., Nguyen T., Byrd C., Hill R., Liu Y.Z. & Xiao Y. (2024) Generation of high-affinity aptamers for indazole synthetic cannabinoids. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 96, 11488 – 11497.
