BIOMOD
BIOMOD is an international bio-molecular design competition for undergraduate students. With the help of a supervisor the students execute a project during the summer and in November meet together with other students from all over the world in Boston to present their project. This year we are participating with our own team for the second time.
We offer motivated undergraduate students who wish to participate the possibility to write their bachelors thesis about the BIOMOD project! For more information about the competition please visit the BIOMOD homepage.
Team 2015
Congratulations to our team for winning the 2nd prize in the BIOMOD 2015 competition!
Carbohydrates play an important role in every biological process. Especially in cells, carbohydrates perform a crucial function concerning cell recognition and growth.
It is clear that the origin of many diseases can be ascribed to a defective or missing recognition process like it is the case with tumour cells. As there are many different proteins on the cell surface, the so called lectins, which are responsible for the specific identification of carbohydrates, it is of great interest to investigate more about the lectin-carbohydrate interaction. Little is known about that so far.
Using the DNA-Origami technique we are developing a basic research tool in order to further investigate the binding behaviour mentioned above.
Team members: Luzia Kilwing, Jonathan Wagner, Chaochen Lu, Maximilian Schiff
Contact: biomod_2015@physik.lmu.de
You can find more information on their wiki page or watch their short video:
Team 2013
Congratulations to our team for winning the BIOMOD 2013 Grand Prize!
So far, nanodiamonds have been utilized in various applications such as biolabeling, single-particle-tracking, or single-photon experiments. Nevertheless, a controlled arrangement of nanodiamonds is required to provide addressable structures and to ultimately perform quantum-information experiments. DNA origami provides a bottom-up technique to easily create 3D shapes of basically any geometry, which in turn would allow for the nanoscale arrangement of DNA-functionalized nanodiamonds. With this aim in mind we developed a biocompatible coating strategy to functionalize the diamonds surface in order to attach them to specific sites on DNA origami structures. Proper placement of the functionalized nanodiamonds was verified via TEM and AFM measurements. We expect our assemblies to open the route for both fundamental quantum-mechanical studies and biological applications with fluorescent nanodiamonds.
You can find more information on their wiki page or watch their short video:
Team 2011
Our BIOMOD Team in 2011 designed and constructed a modular nanoscopic drug delivery device with a pH sensitive opening mechanism. You can find more information on their wiki page or watch their short youtube video.
