3-D Animations Depict Lieberman’s Work

Author: Alec Hipshear

The work of Marya Lieberman, associate professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry, has been depicted in three educational, engaging 3-D animations that make technical subject matter accessible to students and the general public. Lieberman is a member of the Notre Dame Center for Nanoscience and Technology and studies how such DNA Origami interact with semiconductor surfaces and how the origami could serve as templates for nanoelectronic circuits. The first animation shows how the entire genome of a small virus (the filamentous virus m13) can be folded up into a desired shape using synthetic oligonucleotides. The short oligonucleotides bind to different sections of the viral genome and "staple" it into a rectangle that is 60 nm x 90 nm, one of the largest designed structures made entirely by self-assembly. The animations were created by Kristina Davis, visualization specialist at the Center for Research Computing.