Castro Receives Humboldt Fellowship

Carlos Castro, who will be joining the Department of Mechanical Engineering as an assistant professor later this year, recently received the Humboldt fellowship to support his post-doctoral research at the Technical University of Munich.

Castro’s current post-doctoral research is in the field of DNA nanotechnology, focusing on building tools to facilitate and enable new experiments for the study of biological systems, using a technique called DNA origami, whereby DNA can be assembled into nanostructures with a pre-determined shape.  He is currently working to build a sensor to test the dynamic behavior of single molecules.  Many biomolecules exhibit conformational changes as a part of their physiological function.  The goal of this project is to build a nanoscale sensor from DNA origami that is capable of measuring the displacements and dynamics of single molecules, in particular, proteins. 

The Humboldt Foundation was created to promote the progression of science in Germany, and academic cooperation amongst excellent scientist and scholars around the world by supporting international scientists to conduct research in Germany, and German scientists to conduct research abroad.