John Abraham is a Third year at the University of California Santa Barbara, he works under the mentorship of Dr. Sumita Pennathur and Dr. Kevin Plaxco. He works on the insulin formulation challenges behind fully automated insulin delivery (AID) systems for Type 1 diabetes. His project aims to reduce insulin aggregation using molecular chaperones while preserving the folded monomeric state that enables rapid uptake into the bloodstream. He began by developing an insulin formulation protocol and running Thioflavin T (ThT) fluorescence experiments that demonstrated replicable aggregation kinetics. After we found that ThT binds the aptamer—confounding any chaperone study—they identified Congo Red as a substitute and confirmed it does not bind the aptamer. Together Rachel and John ran Congo Red aggregation experiments showing replicable kinetics for insulin in both its monomeric and hexameric forms. He is now investigating the mechanism by which the aptamer binds insulin's epitopes, with future work examining insulin aggregation in the presence of a molecular chaperone and how Congo Red may affect those interactions.