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

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The Ohio State University's Biomolecular Design Team, OhioMOD, won third place 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 encourages undergraduate teams to “compete to build the coolest stuff using the molecules of life.” It’s sponsored by the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, a cross-disciplinary research institute at Harvard University that engineers new bioinspired materials and devices for applications in healthcare, manufacturing, robotics, energy and sustainable architecture. 

The competition included 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 is made up of eight Buckeye engineers, including chemical engineering and mechanical engineering majors. Students worked on projects for 10 months before traveling 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 an academic laboratory and also to an emerging field of engineering and technology that they would not otherwise experience in a typical course curriculum.” 

Participating students also get a chance to interact with scientists and students from around the world, added Castro.

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. 

Teams work with graduate student mentors on their projects and spent the summer building and testing their devices. They also had to build a website, produce a You Tube video and prepare a live 12-minute presentation. Expenses for research and travel were supported by the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and the team’s fundraising efforts.

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 said. “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.”  

“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 said the team took great pride in earning prestige and recognition for OhioMOD 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.”

by the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering