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Duke & UNC: Rivals on the Court, Teammates in Science

Duke and UNC may be rivals on the basketball court, but together they form a powerful team in science. Here are just a few examples of the cutting-edge research the universities are conducting together.

Missy Cummings and graduate research assistant Benjamin Bauchwitz from the Humans and Autonomy Lab (HAL) at Duke work with Laura Sandt at University of North Carolina Highway Safety Research Center (HSRC). Their work evaluates the reliability of driver-assist functions in cars (such as cars that make quick adjustments when they detect a lane departure).

Learn more about HAL at http://hal.pratt.duke.edu/about-human...​ Learn more about HSRC at https://www.hsrc.unc.edu/team/sandt/

Nan Jokerst at Duke is co-director of the Research Triangle Nanotechnology Network (RTNN) along with James Cahoon from UNC and Jacob Jones from NC State. Together they have created a hub for nanotechnology research, discovery, education, commercialization, and workforce development.

Learn more about RTNN here: https://www.rtnn.ncsu.edu/

Alberto Bartesaghi and postdoc Ye Zhou at Duke collaborate with Matthew Redinbo and graduate student Morgan Gibbs at UNC to use cryo-EM technology, a powerful microscope to determine the structures of molecules at the atomic level. Using cryo-EM, they were able to visualize essential gut enzymes at atomic resolution.

Learn more about the Bartesaghi lab here: http://cryoem.cs.duke.edu/research/​ Learn more about the cryo-EM Core at UNC: https://www.med.unc.edu/cryo-em/