CAREER: Programming Nucleic Acids Self-Assembly

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CAREER: Programming Nucleic Acids Self-AssemblyThe objective of this proposal is to develop platforms for engineering programmable synthetic molecular devices self-assembled from nucleic acid molecules (DNA and RNA), and for exploiting these devices to do useful molecular work. In this research, these devices are composed of small synthetic nucleic acid monomers capable of conditional configuration change, and can be programmed to self-assemble, move, and compute. When coupled with other functional molecules, such as fluorophores and proteins, they could potentially serve as dynamic controllers for the spatial arrangement and, hence the collective function, of such molecules. This will enable the development of diverse applications in imaging, sensing, diagnostics, and therapeutics. Specifically, the proposed research will (1) develop computational tools to facilitate the design of these molecular devices, (2) experimentally construct DNA and RNA molecular devices that demonstrate prescribed dynamic behaviors, and (3) exploit such molecular devices for diverse biomedical applications. Integrated research and education plans will be pursued to provide interdisciplinary training for postdoctoral fellows, graduate students, and undergraduate students. New curriculum on molecular engineering will be developed to benefit the Harvard graduate and undergraduate population. Field trip to the PI?s lab will be hosted to help excite students from a local high school with a majority minority population about careers in science and engineering. An international undergraduate biomolecular design and engineering competition will be launched to help expose students around world with research experience in biomolecular nanotechnology.