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MECHANICAL ENGINEERING ME 100/200 SEMINAR SERIES
WINTER QUARTER 2009
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"Information Directed Molecular Technology:
Programming
Nucleic Acid Self-Assembly"
This talk will describe my work and plans on engineering information directed self-assembly
of nucleic acid (DNA/RNA) structures and devices, and on exploiting such systems to do useful
molecular work, e.g. probing and programming biological processes for bioimaging and
therapeutic applications.
Specifically, I will first present a rudimentary programming language that enables userfriendly
design of the dynamic behavior of synthetic nucleic acid systems. The language is
based on the graphical abstraction of a DNA hairpin motif, which physically implements a
programmable kinetic trap. A high level molecular program specifies the connection of such
kinetic traps on a free energy landscape, and defines the system's reaction pathway and dynamic
behavior. A variety of molecular programs were experimentally executed: the catalytic
formation of DNA branch junctions, a cross catalytic circuit, the triggered growth of a binary
molecular "tree", and the autonomous unidirectional motion of a DNA "walker". In a related
work, the abstraction of a 42 base single-stranded DNA motif is used to direct the selfassembly
of molecular tubes with monodisperse, programmable circumferences. The selfassembled
nucleic acid structures can serve as templates to organize molecular entities
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| (e.g. proteins, gold nanoparticles, and carbon nanotubes) into functional materials. The dynamic self-assembling process can be interfaced with biological molecular processes, and provide power molecular instrumentation tools for systems biology and developmental biology research and potentially molecular therapeutic tools with single cell precision. |
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Come on over at 3:45 for some refreshments before the seminar. |
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