This International Research Experience for Students (IRES) activity links expert nano research groups at Duke University in North Carolina and the University of Aarhus in Denmark for a three-year program of interdisciplinary mentoring, academic education, and research-based learning for participating students and junior researchers from both countries. Principal Investigator (PI), Thomas H. LaBean, and colleagues from Duke will work with Danish partners, led by Kurt V. Gothelf, to manage a balanced, team-based approach for research training at the interface between complex DNA nanostructures and DNA-guided chemistry. This builds on a program of cooperation in education and research that features the melding of leading Aarhus conjugation chemistry for coupling diverse compounds to oligonucleotieds with the Duke team?s expertise in design and implementation of complex nanostructures. Overall, research efforts promise significant outcomes in molecular engineering with potential applications in molecular and nano-electronics, nanochemistry, biosensors, or other biomedical areas.
The educational value of the IRES rests with the students? exposure to the productive, cooperative research of the two leading institutions and involvement in their mentors? cutting-edge research. The Duke-Aarhus IRES model involves post-doctoral mentors and diverse, research-ready high school students as well as U.S. graduate and undergraduate students. The PI?s participation in Project SEED, supported by the American Chemical Society, assists with identification of appropriate high school students. For balance and heightened interaction, the program also engages junior Danish researchers, supported independently by the Danish National Research Foundation. Each of the junior participants will be assigned projects that are designed to contribute to program-wide research goals. Through planned cross-disciplinary teamwork, they will acquire knowledge of techniques in synthetic chemistry, DNA structural engineering, protein biochemistry, materials science, and molecular biology.
This U.S.-Danish IRES collaboration in molecular engineering fulfills the program objective of developing global scientists and engineers by enabling experts in the United States and Europe to combine complementary talents and share research and education resources in an area of strong mutual interest and competence. Broader impacts include the introduction of U.S. junior researchers and students to international leaders in nanotechnology through involvement in cutting-edge research so new that even recent textbooks do not address it and through exposure to the collective research life of two outstanding institutions. If successful, results will continue to improve our ability to use DNA self-assembly to organize nanomaterials and to program sophisticated nanochemistry. The students? early career experiences are expected to increase the probability of their establishing international collaborations in the future.
