Professor Chris Thachuk at ECE Fall 2023 Colloquium
The promise of molecular programming lies in its ability to (i) self-assemble structures with nanometer precision, and (ii) process information autonomously in a biochemical context to sense and actuate matter. How do you 'program' an energy landscape so that DNA-based devices operate correctly, yet incur significant kinetic and thermodynamic energy penalties for spurious behavior? I'll focus on different projects that address this same question in different ways. By designing the energy landscape of the interaction between a DNA origami shape and a flat surface we demonstrate that single molecules can be placed with orientation that is absolute and arbitrary. On the topic of molecular computation, existing systems are often slow, error-prone, and require bespoke design and weeks of labor to realize experimentally. I will detail our efforts to fix these issues by developing fast, robust, and reconfigurable molecular circuits and signal amplifiers using DNA strand displacement.
3-230 Keller Hall