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PRODID:-//University of Liverpool Computer Science Seminar System//v2//EN
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DTSTAMP:20260625T113415Z
UID:Seminar-dept-994@lxserverM.csc.liv.ac.uk
ORGANIZER:CN=Lutz Oettershagen:MAILTO:Lutz.Oettershagen@liverpool.ac.uk
DTSTART:20210422T110000
DTEND:20210422T120000
SUMMARY:School Seminar Series
DESCRIPTION:Prof. Damien Woods: Molecular Algorithms Using Reprogrammable DNA Self-Assembly\n\nThe history of computing tells us that computers can be made of almost anything: silicon, gears and levers, neurons, flowing water, interacting particles or even light.  Although lithographically patterned silicon surfaces have been by far the most successful of these, they give us a limited view of what computation is capable of. Algorithms typically control the flow of information by controlling the flow of electrons through digital-electronic devices, but in the field of molecular computing we imagine algorithms that control matter itself.\n\n\n\nThis talk will be about DNA molecules that interact with each other in a test tube to execute algorithms. We will show how DNA can be re-engineered to act not only as an information encoding polymer, as seen in biology, but also as a computational primitive. The talk will showcase our wet-lab results on implementing 21 different algorithms using self-assembling DNA strands [1]. The DNA strands stick together to form a lattice structure, all while executing a so-called 6-bit iterated Boolean circuit. Our set of 355 DNA strands is reprogrammable: it can be used to implement any 6-bit iterated Boolean circuit.  The per-step mean error rate is 1/3000, which we contend is low for engineered self-assembling molecules.  Finally, we use ideas from the theory of computation to help us understand what kinds of computations such self-assembling molecules are capable of in general.\n\n\n\n[1] Woods*, Doty*, Myhrvold, Hui, Zhou, Yin, Winfree. Diverse and robust molecular algorithms using reprogrammable DNA self-assembly.  Nature 567:366-372.  2019.  *Joint lead co-authors.\n\n\n\nhttps://www.csc.liv.ac.uk/research/seminars/abstract.php?id=994
LOCATION:Microsoft Teams
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