Ohio State’s OhioMOD biomolecular design team places third in international competition

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OhioMOD, The Ohio State University's Biomolecular Design Team, won third place honors at BIOMOD, an annual biomolecular design competition for students from university teams around the world including top universities in the United States, Europe and Asia. This year was the OhioMOD team’s fourth year participating and is the first time the team has placed in the top three.

BIOMOD is sponsored by The Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, a cross-disciplinary research institute at Harvard University which focuses on developing new bioinspired materials and devices for applications in healthcare, manufacturing, robotics, energy, and sustainable architecture.  Simply put, according to the BIOMOD website, “Undergraduate teams compete to build the coolest stuff using the molecules of life.”

The competition hosted 24 registered teams from Columbia University and Rutgers University in the United States and top-ranked universities from Germany, Mexico, Japan, China and Australia.   Ohio State’s team was represented by students from The Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (MAE), The Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and The Department of Biomedical Engineering.  Students lead projects over 10 months and  travel to the BIOMOD Jamboree in late October to present their work and compete for awards.

“The competition gives undergraduate students an opportunity to perform collaborative interdisciplinary research in the cutting-edge field of biomolecular design,” said Carlos Castro, assistant professor and advisor.  “It exposes them to experience in an academic laboratory but also to an emerging field of engineering and technology that they would not otherwise learn in a typical course curriculum.”  Students also get a chance to interact with scientists and students from around the world, according to Castro.

Teams work with graduate student mentors on projects such as building molecular robots or biochemical nanoreactors.  Once the team is assembled, they spend the summer building and testing their devices.  They must also build a website, produce a You Tube video and prepare a live, 12 minute presentation.  Expenses for research and travel were supported by MAE and the team’s fundraising efforts.

The OhioMOD team’s project was to characterize the stability of DNA nanostructures in physiological conditions – an application not currently well understood.  They performed a systematic study testing the stability of a panel of DNA nanostructures and identified design features that improve stability.  “They obtained impressive results for the competition and for the field of DNA nanotechnology in general,” Castro said. 

Vasiliki “Aliki” Kolliopoulos, president of OhioMOD, was grateful for the opportunity to have participated in the competition as a student, researcher and leader.  “The competition itself was an incredible platform for personal and academic advancement,” she commented.  “Having hands-on experience in a biomolecular design project and working on a multidisciplinary team was invaluable.”  Kolliopoulos also credits her graduate student and faculty mentors with her steady progression as a researcher as they pushed the boundaries of the project.  “Their support and guidance has helped clarify my future plans,” she said.  

 “It takes a lot of work to compete at BIOMOD,” said Patrick Halley, the team’s graduate student mentor.  “To go to an engineering competition of this stature with brilliant students from around the world and place in the top three is quite the achievement.  I’m proud of all they’ve accomplished.” 

According to Castro, BIOMOD is attended by some of the top researchers in the field of biomolecular nanotechnology.  He says the OhioMOD team took great pride in earning prestige and recognition for the team and the Nanoengineering and Biodesign Lab.  “The team did an awesome job this year,” he said.  “I am proud of how they represented our lab and The Ohio State University.”