Ochadai BIOMOD team joined “BIOMOD 2015 Japan Meeting”
What’s BIOMOD?
BIOMOD (BIOMOlecular Design) is an international competition held yearly in Harvard that aims to foster the spread of knowledge in that particular field. The Ochanomizu BIOMOD team is made of undergrad students from diverse backgrounds (Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Information Science), which they used collaboratively to achieve their goal.
The team challenged to join the BIOMOD meeting in Japan for the first time, held in the University of Tokyo on Sep. 5, 2015
Their theme is the development of a novel UV-cutting material, using DNA-scaffolded gold nanostuctures. In simpler terms, artificial DNA (Biology) was designed to fold in a particular pattern. Thanks to chemical modifications, gold nanoparticules were able to attach to that structure (Chemistry). Due to an effect called Surface Plasmon Resonance (Physics), interaction between light and the structure efficiently removes UV. So far, only simulation (Physics, Information Science) has been performed, but the experimental design is well on its way (Biology, Chemistry).
The Team presented its current results during the Japanese Biomod Competition. Competition was fierce as veteran teams joined as well, yet the Ochanomizu team managed to get 5th place. Next step is the International competition in Harvard!（By Dr. Nathanaël Aubert-Kato）
BIOMOD 2015 Japan Meeting
Ochadai presentation
Question-and-answer session
Rehearsal for competition
