Week+of+August+24th,+2009

LM's Logbook


 * Monday August 24th, 2009**

During the summer I began my project for the Science Research class. Working under Doctor Lieberman of the Notre Dame Chemistry and Biochemistry Department and one of her graduate students--Kyoung Nan Kim--my project is well on its way. Similar to that of Renula's (see also here), Alexi's and Alan's, my project deals with DNA origami and the use of the AFM. DNA origami is a self-assembling system, which could be used for nano-electronic chips (thus the basis of my project). The name of my project is Positioning and Orientation of DNA origami. To find out more about my project, you can take a look at a poster I made for the Notre Dame Undergraduate Symposium this summer:

[|Poster]

My goal for this year: -To be able to successfully align DNA origami on an APTES trail pattern (on a silicon surface) To achieve this goal I must: - Continue imaging my DNA origami with sticky ends and index pattern (refer to the poster) on mica. This is to see if sticky ends will contribute to the aligning of DNA origami. - From there, I will image my DNA origami with sticky ends and index pattern on APTES and TMAC (self-assembling monolayers, refer to the poster). - If sticky ends are not positioning the origami correctly, I will assist Nan Kim in developing DNA origami that will line up.