Roberto likes to run and ride his bike and also enjoys playing video games. Someday he'd like to become a chemist, he says, because "I want to be able to work in a laboratory with reactions."
Premature babies lack lipids in their lungs. Because lipids are vital for oxygen–carbon dioxide exchange, many of these infants cannot breathe on their own. Roberto met a graduate student studying lung lipids and became interested in learning more about them.
Roberto operated a trough apparatus that expanded and contracted, mimicking the action of the alveoli in the lungs. He floated lipids on a layer on top of the water in the trough. During compression, the lipids formed a single layer, as evidenced by the intensity of their vibration when absorbing light. During expansion, the lipid layer produced much less energy – key evidence that the lipid molecules are spread out. This trough design could be used to design an agent to treat premature infants.
