Past Seminars

The weekly seminar series organized by CNT and the Molecular Engineering and Sciences Institute provides a forum for bringing national and international leaders in nanoscale science and technology to campus, and for graduate students enrolled in our Dual Ph.D. program in Nanotechnology to present their research.

All seminars are held on Tuesdays from 2:30 to 3:20 PM in Johnson Hall Room 102 (North end of building and across from MolE).

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Seminars

2013-01-08

Designable genetic control systems for synthetic biology

Asst. Prof. James M. Carothers, University of Washington - Chemical Engineering & Member, Molecular Engineering and Sciences Institute
Speaker's Website
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In an era of genome-scale DNA construction, there are very few approaches for designing complex biological systems that encode new functions. We are interested in developing designable genetic control systems to enable both better understanding of biological principles and applications to meet demands for renewable chemicals, engineered therapeutic tissues, and materials for global health. We have successfully formulated design-driven approaches that use mechanistic modeling and kinetic RNA folding simulations to engineer RNA-regulated genetic devices that can control gene expression in metabolic pathways producing industrial chemicals. We have also demonstrated that models and simulation tools can be used to inform the design of microbial dynamic sensor-regulator systems (DSRS) engineered to produce fatty acid-based chemicals and fuels. Taken together, our work establishes conceptual and experimental frameworks for developing more full-edged design platforms. In this presentation, I will share these results and describe our ongoing efforts to create designable genetic control systems for fundamental and applied synthetic biology.