Ph.D. Candidate Taryn Imamura has been awarded a Seeman Student Travel Award to attend DNA30.
As described on the DNA30 travel awards website, awardees were selected "based on a combination of quality, novelty and importance of research, diversity of scientific areas, and connection to Nadrian C. Seeman’s vision broadly defined as “controlling matter with chemical information”.
This Fall semester we are excited to welcome new Ph.D. Candidate Lainie Beauchemin and new Undergraduate Researcher Shriya Sivakumar to the lab!
Today Dr. Bolutito Babatunde successfully defended her thesis entitled "Investigating a flexible framework for automating structural multi- layer DNA origami designs". Congratulations and fantastic work, Tito!
Tito's thesis committee included Co-advisors Prof. Rebecca Taylor and Prof. Jonathan Cagan, along with Prof. Phil LeDuc (MechE) and Prof. Jim McCann (RI).
Carnegie Mellon University’s Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Characterization Facility (MCF) are searching for a Postdoctoral Researcher to join their team. This is a unique opportunity for someone who wants to explore high-throughput structural assessment of DNA nanotechnology while also engaging the broader research community as the small angle x-ray scattering (SAXS) specialist in the MCF. In the Taylor Lab, you will investigate approaches for high-throughput synthesis as well as SAXS-based characterization of DNA origami nanostructures. As the SAXS specialist, you will be the primary point of contact for the Xenocs Xeuss 3.0 SAXS instrument by supporting users through leading training sessions, providing guidance on techniques and data analysis, and running samples on behalf of external/remote users.
Apply through the Careers @ Carnegie Mellon (posting #2021872)
Design, synthesize and characterize a variety of nucleic acid nanostructures and machines
Collaborate effectively to provide nanostructures to collaborating researchers
Communicate findings in weekly meetings, at conferences, and in journal publications.
Engage the SAXS user base by providing training and interacting with and providing assistance to internal and external users, including changing configurations as needed.
Maintain and coordinate the maintenance of the SAXS with the Xenocs team and also support troubleshooting on the instrument
As needed, train junior Taylor lab members in essential research skills such as the design, synthesis and analytical techniques used for DNA origami.
Other duties as assigned
Flexibility, excellence, and passion are vital qualities within Carnegie Mellon University. Inclusion, collaboration and cultural sensitivity are valued competencies at CMU. Therefore, we are in search of a team member who is able to effectively interact with a varied population of internal and external partners at a high level of integrity. We are looking for someone who shares our values and who will support the mission of the university through their work.
PhD in materials science, chemistry, engineering, physics or related discipline is required.
Graduate level research experience with SAXS is required.
Prior experience with DNA nanotechnology is preferred.
Expertise with one or more SAXS analysis programs (RAW, XSACT, SAXSUtilities, SAXSview, TVIEW, etc.) is preferred.
Also OriginPro, Powerpoint, Excel are valuable software skills.
Strong verbal and written communication skills and a passion for research are required.
Must possess an eagerness to learn new techniques and lead projects independently.
Start date: As early as September 2024 and we will be reviewing applications throughout the summer and fall until the position is filled.
To begin the conversation with Prof. Taylor and the MMBL about this position, please email "joinmmbl@gmail.com".
This summer we are excited to welcome 4 summer researchers to the lab: Jaren Hubal, Elsa Schleicher, Nicholas Chung and Arianna LeDuc!
And if we were playing a game of training background BINGO, this team would win because they span the full gamut: masters, post-bac, undergrad and high school!
Congratulations to Sebastian Arias on his recent paper Scientific Discovery at the Press of a Button: Navigating Emerging Cloud Laboratory Technology being published in Advanced Materials Technologies!
This paper is important reading for any researcher looking to integrate automated cloud lab processes into their research pipeline.
Congratulations to A.J. for winning a DoD NDSEG fellowship! And many thanks to the DoD for this tremendous support.
Congratulations to equal co-authors Weitao Wang and Bhavya Chopra on their recent paper "Cell–Surface Binding of DNA Nanostructures for Enhanced Intracellular and Intranuclear Delivery" being published in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces.
This comprehensive study represents a tremendous collaborative effort with major contributions from co-authors Vismaya Walawalkar, Zijuan Liang and Rebekah Adams along with Professors Markus Deserno (Physics) and Xi (Charlie) Ren (BME)!
Congratulations to Bolutito Babatunde on her recent paper An Improved Shape Annealing Algorithm for the Generation of Coated Deoxyribonucleic Acid Origami Nanostructures being published in the ASME Journal of Mechanical Design. This joint project with co-advisor Prof. Jon Cagan has been an exciting adventure to explore a new approach for the automated design of DNA origami.
Many thanks to JMD for the invitation to publish in this special issue highlighting top papers from the 2023 IDETC International Design Engineering Technical Conference!
We captured the moment of celebration as Tito submitted the final revised version of the paper to JMD!
Congratulations to Sebastian for being awarded the 2024 Neil and Jo Bushnell Fellowship in Engineering!
This fellowship recognizes outstanding Ph.D. research in the areas of nanotechnology or electronic materials in the College of Engineering. Many thanks to Neil and Jo Bushnell for supporting this award.