Student and Postdoc Travel Support for International Workshop on Future trends in DNA-based nanotechnology

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This award supports students and postdoctoral scholars from US Institutions to attend the International Workshop on Future Trends in DNA-based Nanotechnology (DNATEC17), which will take place in May 2017 at Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems, Dresden, Germany. DNA has developed to be a "designer molecule" that can be used to construct complex artificial nanostructures with a precision and complexity not easily achievable by conventional lithographic techniques. DNA nanotechnology has - in an engineering context - become a pioneering field of employing basic biological principles such as molecular recognition and self-assembly for advanced materials synthesis. DNATEC17 aims at summarizing the enormous progress in the rapidly growing cross-disciplinary field of nucleic acid-based nanotechnology, and enhancing the exchange of ideas and understanding by bringing under the same roof experts from different fields of physics, biophysics, chemistry, biology, computer science and materials science. Supported by this award, students and postdocs attending this workshop will gain an understanding of the process of creating and developing sound scientific ideas. There is a unique blend of theory and practice in DNA-based nanotechnology, from a range of academic disciplines. Interdisciplinarity is absolutely engrained within the goals of this workshop. At DNATEC17, young scholars will see that the leaders in their field are devoted to the idea of producing the highest quality interdisciplinary research. A full day of tutorials at the beginning of the conference will facilitate students' understanding of work from a variety of fields.This award will help to foster the development of the next generation of molecular designers and molecular programmers, by encouraging students to attend, present their work, and interact with other important players in the field. The workshop will: 1. cover aspects including structural DNA nanotechnology, DNA-based machinery, advanced imaging techniques, structure modeling for nucleic acid-based nanostructures as well as DNA nanotechnology for programmable molecular circuitry, intracellular biocomputation and synthetic biology. 2. address basic scientific questions that have to be solved in near future and that are related to both the creation of novel designer rules for advanced assembly of complex 3D structures and the successful transfer of the latter into more applicative fields. Approximately 20 outstanding students and postdoctoral scholars from US institutions will be funded by this award to support their travel to the workshop.By attending DNATEC17, students and postdoctoral scholars from US Institution working in the field of DNA nanotechnology will have the opportunity to present their work to an audience of international scientists. This will facilitate their interaction with the international research community and greatly foster collaborations between the young scientists in US institution with scientists from other nations, leading to potential international collaborations.