Jessica A Nash
[email protected]
3035 Engineering Bldg I
911 Partner’s Way
Raleigh, NC 27606
Education:
In progress
Ph.D. Materials Science and Engineering
North Carolina State University
GPA: 3.893
NSF Graduate Research Fellow
Triangle Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC) Fellow
May 2012
B.S. Chemistry
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Graduated with Distinction
Research Experience:
North Carolina State University, Department of Materials Science and Engineering
Advisor: Yaroslava G. Yingling
Secondary Advisor: Thomas H. LaBean
Graduate Research Assistant, NSF Fellow
August 2012-Present
Study of DNA systems for nanotechnology applications. Use of AMBER molecular dynamics software for
simulations of the interactions of gold nanoparticles with nucleic acids (Yingling). Experimental studies
and analysis of DNA tiles and origami systems (LaBean) using techniques including UV-Vis spectroscopy
and Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM).
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Department of Chemistry
Advisor: Michael Rubinstein
Undergraduate Research Assistant
May 2011 –August 2011, January 2012-July 2012
Molecular dynamics simulations of bottlebrush polymers using LAMMPS software package. Programs
written in C++ for data analysis
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Department of Chemistry
Advisor: Mark H. Schoenfisch
Undergraduate Research Assistant
January 2010 – May 2011
Development of electrospun nitric oxide (NO) releasing polymer microfibers for biomedical applications.
Characterization using environmental scanning electron microscopy (ESEM). Measurement of NO
release with spectroscopy and chemiluminescence NO Analyzer (NOA)
Publications:
(1) Nash, J.A.; Singh, A.; Li, N. K; Yingling, Y.G..; Exploring conformational changes of DNA bound to
cationic gold nanoparticles using all-atom molecular dynamics simulation. 2015, Submitted
(2) Rangenekar, A.; Nash, J.A.; Goodfred, B.; Yingling, Y.G.; LaBean, T.H.; Design of potent and
controllable anticoagulants using DNA aptamers and nanostructures. 2015, Submitted
(3) Li, N. K.; Kim, H. S.; Nash, J. A.; Lim, M.; Yingling, Y. G. Progress in Molecular Modelling of DNA
Materials. Mol. Simul. 2014, 1–7.
(4) Pederson, R.; Marchi, A. N.; Majikes, J.; Nash, J. A.; Estrich, N. A.; Courson, D. S.; Hall, C. K.; Craig,
Stephen, L.; LaBean, T. H. Properties of DNA. In Handbook of Nanomaterials Properties; Bhushan,
B.; Luo, D.; Schricker, S. R.; Sigmund, W.; Zauscher, S., Eds.; Springer Berlin Heidelberg: Berlin,
Heidelberg, 2014; pp. 1125–1157.
(5) Coneski, P. N.; Nash, J. A.; Schoenfisch, M. H. Nitric Oxide-Releasing Electrospun Polymer
Microfibers. ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 2011, 3, 426–432.
Selected Research Presentations:

J.A. Nash, Albert Kwansa, and Y.G. Yingling, "GPU-enabled design of artificial histone-like
nanoparticles for DNA wrapping", American Chemical Society Fall Meeting, poster presentation,
August 2015
★NVIDIA GPU Award Best Poster

J.A. Nash, Abhishek Singh, Nan K. Li, “Effect of nanoparticle shape and ligand flexibility on nucleic
acid wrapping NPs”, American Chemical Society Fall Meeting, oral presentation, August 2015

J.A. Nash, Abhishek Singh, Nan K. Li, “Effect of nanoparticle surface chemistry and salt
concentration on binding to RNA and DNA”, American Chemical Society Spring Meeting, oral
presentation, March 2015

J.A. Nash, Albert Kwansa, and Y.G. Yingling, "Gold nanoparticle-nucleic acid modeling using GPUaccelerated molecular dynamics", American Chemical Society Spring Meeting, poster presentation,
March 2015

J.A. Nash, and Y.G. Yingling, “Designing Nanoparticles for Efficient Wrapping of Nucleic Acids”,
AIChE Annual Meeting, oral presentation, November 20, 2014

J.A. Nash, and Y.G. Yingling, “Bending DNA with cationic nanoparticles”, Triangle Student Research
Competition, poster presentation, September 2014
★1st place best poster – Triangle Student Research Competition

J.A. Nash, and Y.G. Yingling, “Bending DNA with cationic nanoparticles”, Triangle Soft Matter
Workshop, poster presentation, May 2014
★Selected as NC State best poster

J.A. Nash, T.L. Tucker and Y.G. Yingling, “Molecular simulations of nanoparticle interactions with
single stranded DNA”, Materials Research Society Fall Meeting, poster presentation , Dec. 2013

J.A. Nash, T.H. LaBean and Y.G. Yingling, “Molecular dynamics study of DNA Weave Tiles”, South
East Regional Meeting of the American Chemical Society, poster presentation , Nov. 15, 2012
Other Awards and Recognition:

National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (2013)

NCSU College of Engineering Graduate Merit Award (2012)

Tanya R. Ellison Scholarship – UNC Chapel Hill (2010)
Mentored Students:



Lauryn Flynn (2015) – NCSU undergraduate
o Project: Molecular dynamics simulations of gold nanoparticles with block copolymers.
William Therriault (2014) – Durham Technical Community College Student
o Project: Molecular dynamics simulations of gold nanoparticles with single stranded DNA and
RNA.
Tasha L. Tucker (2013-2014)– NCSU undergraduate
o Project: Molecular dynamics simulations of gold nanoparticles with single stranded DNA
Campus Activities:
2014-2015
Vice President of Academic Affairs
NC State University Graduate Student Association (UGSA)
Duties include serving as member and liaison to the UGSA Research Recognition
Committee, acting as a contact point for the UGSA Award for Conferences and
organization with the NC State Graduate School of Graduate Education Week.
2013-2014
Vice President
Materials Science and Engineering Graduate Student Council
2013-2014
Chair
UGSA Research Recognition Committee
Responsible for overseeing the committee which awards NC State’s Graduate Award for
Conferences ($15,000 awarded to graduate students at NC State each year). Worked
th
with the graduate school to plan the 10 annual University wide Graduate Research
Symposium.
2013-2014
Department Representative
NC State University Graduate Student Association
2013-2014
Member
NC State Standing Committee on Evaluation of Teaching
Outreach:




Troop Leader – Girl Scouts North Carolina Coastal Pines (May 2014-present)
Taste of Engineering, NCSU – 2014 volunteer- Recruitment event for undergraduate women in
engineering at NCSU
NanoDays, NCSU – 2013-2015 – volunteer with Triangle MRSEC
NCSU Science/Math Interactive Learning Experience - Leading and mentoring middle school
students in science experiments. Planning of experiments and needed supplies (2012-2013).