DNA self-assembly and DNA nanotechnology
Center for Advanced Interdisciplinary Research CENIIS, UGIM announces the lecture:
DNA self-assembly and DNA nanotechnology
Lecturer: Prof. Dr. Natasha Jonoska
Distinguished University Professor, University of South Florida in Tampa, Florida; Fulbright Specialist at FINKI; Research Fellow at the Center for Advanced Interdisciplinary Research, UKIM.
May 14, 2024, 6:00 PM, FINKI Amphitheater
Moderators: Prof. Dr. Ordan Chukaliev, Head of CeNIIs,
Prof. Dr. Nevena Atckovska, FINK
The lecture is supported by FINKY, the Fulbright Specialist Program, and the Macedonian Section of the IEEE.
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DNA self-assembly and DNA nanotechnology
Abstract:
Bottom-up self-assembly of DNA nanostructures has been proposed for a variety of biotech applications ranging from information storage to targeted drug delivery or scaffolding for new materials. Engineering predefined building blocks at the nano level with various chiralities that assemble into large 3D crystallographic structures is an essential step for both 3D algorithmic assemblies as well as for spatial information storage. We will discuss some recent developments in the field and will focus on spatial systems as models for information processing at the molecular level. The rationally-designed 3D DNA motif, the tensegrity triangle, is the first DNA molecule used to provide DNA crystallographic assemblies. The possibilities of these building blocks give ever-increasing geometric complexities that form vast arrays of three-dimensional structures. We present a model that explains and predicts which tensegrity triangle structures can form and what chiral topology they can adopt, whether left- or right-handed. The theoretical model is also experimentally verified through units designed with incremental rotational steps.
Short biography:
Nataša Jonoska is a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of South Florida in Tampa, Florida. Her research interests are in theoretical and computational models of molecular self-assembly and molecular biology. She has had extensive research collaborations with experimentalists in molecular biology and structural DNA nanotechnology. She holds a PhD degree in Mathematical Sciences from the State University of New York in Binghamton, NY, USA, and since 2014 she has been a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Her work on three-dimensional DNA self-assembly as computing models has been awarded with a Rozenberg Tulip Award in DNA Computing and Molecular Programming by the International Society for Nanoscale Science and Computing. Her work has been/is supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the W.M. Keck Foundation, and in 2022 she was elected a Simons Fellow in Mathematics. For ten years, she served as Chair of the annual DNA Computing and Molecular Programming conference and co-chaired the annual Unconventional Computing and Natural Computing conference. She also serves on the editorial boards of several journals, including Theoretical Computer Science, Natural Computing, and the International Journal of Foundations of Computer Science, and has edited nine books on these topics. In 2021, the Florida section of the Mathematical Association of America awarded her the MAA award for Distinguished College or University Teaching of Mathematics, while the journal Theoretical Computer Science published a special issue marking her 60th birthday. She was elected a foreign member of the Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts in 2022.
