Colon-Bernal, Isabel

About this team member

Isabel is naturally from San Juan, Puerto Rico. She received her B.S. in Chemistry from the University of Puerto Rico Río Piedras Campus in June 2015. At UPR, she did atmospheric chemistry and aerosol research looking into the characterization of biogenic aerosols in the Caribbean with Dr. Olga L. Mayol-Bracero. She began her quest for a Ph.D. by joining the U-M Chemistry department in Summer 2015 as part of the analytical cluster, and joined the Banaszak Holl group in June 2016. She focused on studying the nanostructure of Type I collagen and variations in chemical composition in relation to structure and disease. Outside of the lab, she is very passionate about teaching, volunteers at the U-M Natural History Museum, and loves cosmetics, rock music and geeky stuff (comic books, DnD, videogames).

Publications

• Uptake and Retention of Nanoplastics in Quagga Mussels R. L. Merzel, L. Purser, T. L. Soucy, M. Olszewski, I. Colon-Bernal, M. Dumaime, A. K. Elgin, M. M. Banaszak Holl Global Challenges 2019 1800104
• Cathepsin K inhibition preserves compressive load in lumar vertebrae of osteoporotic monkeys I. D. Colon-Bernal, L. T. Duong, B. Pennypacker, J. Henderson, K. M. Kozloff, M. M. Banaszak Holl Bone Reports 2018 9 159-164
• The Relationship of Collagen Structural and Compositional Heterogeneity to Tissue Mechanical Properties: A Chemical Perspective J. Chen, T. Ahn, I. D. Colon-Bernal, J. Kim, M. M. Banaszak Holl ACS Nano 2017 11 10665-10671