Major/Minor: BME
Year: 4th Year
Lab Name and Department: DNA Nanostructures Lab led by Dr. Ke (Emory BME)
Project Title: Test Polymerization of DNA Origami Nanostructures for Drug Delivery
Is your lab work remote, in-person, or hybrid? In-person
How did you join your lab? Contacting Dr. Ke and few other lab members and visiting lab prior to joining.
Please describe your project:
The project is focused on creating and using DNA origami nanostructures to deliver a specific drug to cancer cells while preventing enzymatic degradation of the origami. The base structure is modeled using CAD software and decorated with artificial single-stranded DNA using non-natural nucleotides produced through terminal deoxynucleotidal transferase (TdT). The base structure is also decorated with 5FU strands containing the drug at specific locations of the nanostructures.
Anything else you would like to say?
Make sure to spend plenty of time to figure out what you are really passionate about researching, rather than trying to begin researching as soon as possible but are assigned a project that does not interest you. I began researching during spring of my second year after completing a VIP project that did not interest me as much as my current research is.