BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//Memento EPFL//
BEGIN:VEVENT
SUMMARY:IC Colloquium : DNA information storage and computing
DTSTART:20161202T161500
DTEND:20161202T173000
DTSTAMP:20260408T015612Z
UID:d6bb509b91cdd419a5749178844bc5de537b7e33871466b5720c9e47
CATEGORIES:Conferences - Seminars
DESCRIPTION:By : Georg Seelig - University of Washington\n\nAbstract :\nIn
  this presentation\, I will cover two related but different connections be
 tween computer science and DNA. First\, I will talk about DNA data storage
 \, then about DNA computation.\n\nDNA data storage.  The amount of digita
 l data in the world is growing exponentially and current storage technolog
 ies are ill-suited to keep up with this rapidly growing demand. Storing in
 formation in synthetic DNA could be an attractive alternative due to its t
 heoretical information density --- ~ 1018B/mm3\, 107 times denser than mag
 netic tape --- and potential durability of thousands of years. Recent work
  argued that the time is right to start using DNA as a storage method\, bu
 t used only modest volumes of data to create proofs of concept. In recent 
 work\, we demonstrated a path towards viability of DNA data storage by sca
 ling and developing support for large-scale random access. We encoded and 
 stored over 30 files totaling about 150MB of data in more than 10 million 
 oligonucleotides of DNA\, representing an advance of over an order of magn
 itude compared to prior work.\n\nDNA computing. Performing computation ins
 ide living cells offers life-changing applications\, from improved medical
  diagnostics to better cancer therapy to intelligent drugs. Due to its bio
 -compatibility and ease of engineering\, one promising approach for perfor
 ming in-vivo computation is DNA strand displacement. I will explain what D
 NA strand displacement is and it can be used to create logic gates and cir
 cuits. Importantly\, the goal of these approaches is not to solve general 
 computational problems faster than electronics could. Instead\, current DN
 A-based computing aims to develop molecular information processing similar
  to that which occurs inside cells and to engineer systems that can proces
 s information that is intrinsically molecular (such as the information enc
 oded in the concentrations of various cellular molecules). In other words\
 , it is a promising way to embed bio-compatible computing elements into a 
 living cell.\n\nBio :\nGeorg Seelig is an associate professor of Computer 
 Science & Engineering and Electrical Engineering at the University of Wash
 ington. He is an adjunct associate professor of Bioengineering. Seelig hol
 ds a PhD in physics from the University of Geneva in Switzerland and did p
 ostdoctoral work in synthetic biology and DNA nanotechnology at Caltech. H
 e received a Burroughs Wellcome Foundation Career Award at the Scientific 
 Interface in 2008\, an NSF Career Award in 2010\, a Sloan Research Fellows
 hip in 2011\, a DARPA Young Faculty Award in 2012\, an ONR Young Investiga
 tor Award in 2014 and a Microsoft Outstanding Collaborator Award in 2016.
  \n \nSeelig is interested in understanding how biological organisms pro
 cess information using complex biochemical networks and how such networks 
 can be engineered to program cellular behavior. Our approach combines forw
 ard engineering of synthetic circuits with the quantitative characterizati
 on of existing RNA-based gene regulatory pathways. We are applying enginee
 red circuits to problems in disease diagnostics and therapy.\n\nMore infor
 mation\n 
LOCATION:BC 420 https://plan.epfl.ch/?room==BC%20420
STATUS:CONFIRMED
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR