Undergraduate research position studying mechanical properties of DNA nanostructures

A position is currently available for an undergraduate research assistant to work on a collaborative project between the labs of Mechanochemistry and Functional Imaging Applications (Prof. Yun Chen) in the Mechanical Engineering department and the Mechanics of Architected Materials group (Prof. Stavros Gaitanaros) in the Civil Engineering department.

The project focuses on the combination of computational modeling (FEM) and experiments in order to examine the mechanical behavior of DNA nano-beams under tension. These rationally designed and programmed nanostructures, synthesized through molecular self-assembly, have great potential for applications ranging from medicine and biophysics to nanoelectronics and modern metamaterials. The primary part of the project will be computational modeling using caDNAno and CanDo. caDNAno ​ is a CAD software specifically aimed to design DNA origami, and CanDo is a MATLAB code with an interface to a commercial finite element software (ADINA) that calculates the equilibrium shape of these nanostructures. The student will be getting proper training to become familiar with the software packages, but prior experience with computational mechanics and/or MATLAB coding will be very helpful.

Interested students should contact Professors Yun Chen (yun.chen@jhu.edu) and Stavros Gaitanaros (stavrosg@jhu.edu) for more information.