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RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS in-silico / in-vitro:

The evolution of topology in biological networks Joint work with Dr. Waldispühl & Dr. Inoue

Cells come under evolutionary pressure to alter what, when and whether some genes should be expressed at a given moment in their life cycle. A gene can be assigned benefit/damage scores denoting the degree to which its expression provides (dis)advantage to the organism under said pressure. A gene may therefore be an asset (benefit > 0 and damage = 0), a liability (b = 0, d > 0), or both (b > 0, d > 0). What subset of genes should be deleted/mutated, and which should be conserved, such that the total number of damaging interactions is minimized to a tolerable threshold? This optimization question can be defined formally, and the difficulty of answering it seems to directly depend on the topology of biological networks Read more ..

The idea of using the resilient, ancient, and fine-tuned DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) for material purposes has attracted researchers for decades. Amazing 2D and 3D nano-structures have been demonstrated. DNA as an immobilization (2D) or containerization (3D) substrate has many exciting potential use cases. Can such structures be produced at an industrial-grade throughput and with acceptable cost-to-yield ratio?   Read more ..

Programmable fabrication of DNA nano-structures Joint work with Dr. Waldispühl & Dr. Vidal