U.S.-Poland Summer Program on the Structural Role of Metal Ions in Modified RNA Enzymes

North Carolina State University, Raleigh NC

Investigators

Abstract

OISE 05-53951 Stefan Franzen North Carolina State University This U.S.-Polish project is a summer undergraduate student program based at Adam Mickiewicz University (AMU) and the Polish National Academy of Sciences (PAN) in Poznan, Poland. The principal investigators are Dr. Stefan Franzen at North Carolina State University and Stefan Jurga from Adam Mickiewicz University. The concept for the program is to develop an educational component to a research project that involves collaborative research on a novel problem of general interest for RNA structure and function. The theme of the research is the study of the effects of metal ions on modified nucleotides and oligonucleotides that are used as RNA enzymes. The PI and co-PIs have recently embarked on program of research that involves the development novel catalytic RNAs that are capable of synthesizing novel nanoscale materials. The research goals involve determining the structure and function of the RNA molecules that are capable of carrying out catalytic processes. The philosophy of the program is that undergraduate summer research will benefit from synergistic projects that have common features. In this way the summer research will provide a coherent training for students. The students will contribute to a larger effort and hence they will be learning from each others experiments as well as from the interaction with professors at both AMU and PAN as well as with the principal investigator.