Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry

Teachers will be able to choose from the following projects.

Project Descriptions:

1. Imaging of DNA tiles by atomic force microscopy. The teacher who participates in this project under the direction of Professor Marya Lieberman will be trained to use an atomic force microscope to obtain molecular resolution imaging of DNA molecules, starting with plasmid DNA and ending with artificial DNA constructs used in an ongoing nanotechnology project. The teacher will measure the size and shape of several types of DNA tiles and may carry out biochemical characterization as well (melting curves, gel electrophoresis) depending on their background and interests. The research component will be spread over a 6-8 week period, but about a quarter of the time will be spent designing curricular material on DNA structure and characterization for incorporation into their HS biology course.

2. Fabrication of chemically realistic models of DNA. This project under the direction of Professor Marya Lieberman will use the Rapid Prototyping facility at Notre Dame. The project will require 5-6 weeks. The teacher will define the steric properties and conformational flexibility of DNA bases based on information in the biochemical literature and chemical modeling programs. He or she will then work with a mechanical engineering student using ProEngineer, a CAD program, to design snap-together DNA bases that incorporate realistic steric contraints and magnets to model base pairing interactions. Models will be fabricated using a stereolithography rapid prototyping system. The teacher will also design curricular materials to incorporate the models into HS biology lessons on DNA structure. After class testing and evaluation, several class sets of the models will be fabricated for loans to local HS biology teachers.