molpigs, The Molecular Programming Interest Group, is an international group of researchers interested in topics such as molecular programming, DNA computing, and other aspects of biomolecular nanotechnology. We host regular seminars, poster sessions, journal clubs, send out newsletters, and host a forum for discussion and fostering collaboration.
Hello and welcome back to the molpigs newsletter! Feel free to hang out at the molpigs Forum! We are also on twitter!
All the past podcasts and tutorial can be found here. You can also now find our podcasts on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google, Stitcher, TuneIn, and more (as well as manually in your favorite podcast client with our RSS feed)! Enjoy!
The founder of molpigs, Hannah Earley, has recently passed their thesis defense. Congratulations Dr. Earley!
- New events coming–Chat with Kent Kemmish!
- Job Advertisements!
- Interested in helping out, sharing something interesting, or have an idea for something we could do?
1. New events coming–Chat with Kent Kemmish!
We will talk with Kent Kemmish in a few days!
Kent Kemmish is the CEO and founder of demonpore, inc., a biotech startup building a nanopore-based molecular sensor (the demonpore 64) marketed and designed as a gaming console. His early scientific training includes drosophila research (Arizona Cancer Center) and finding enzymes to break down age-related aggregates as part of Aubrey de Grey’s LysoSENS project (work done at the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University). He went on to be part of the founding team of Halcyon Molecular, a VC-backed startup developing electron microscopy-based DNA sequencing techniques, and later helped recruit the early team of Synthego, Inc, a biotech unicorn and now a premiere supplier of CRISPR reagents. Before becoming a scientist, Kent’s unusual background included live theatre production as part of the team at Planet Earth Multicultural Theatre in Phoenix, AZ, where as technical director he was involved as a director, actor, writing, and stage manager in more than 50 live stage productions of multicultural, postmodern, boundary-pushing, critically-acclaimed theatrical performances. As a child, Kent’s whole life revolved around programming video games for the commodore 64, a passion he is now revisiting 35 years later working with the game design team of demonpore.
If you have any questions, please send them here!
2. Job Advertisements!
- Postdoc position
- Postdoc position open in the Kosuri Lab at the Salk Institute in San Diego! We use DNA origami to study motor proteins, create hybrid protein-DNA devices, and reverse engineer muscles.
- Postdoc and PhD student position
- The Ti Lab at UC Berkeley is looking for researchers from diverse backgrounds at various career stages.
- Thorsten Schmidt would like to hire a PhD student or postdoc at Kent State University for a the development of DNA-lipid nanodiscs as tools for single-molecule cryo EM of membrane proteins.
- The Schulman (Synthetic Biomolecular Machines) group at Johns Hopkins University is currently recruiting postdoctoral scholars and PhD students. There are specific opportunities in 1) developing reconfigurable, adaptive and self-healing DNA nanostructures and 2) developing dynamic molecular circuits and material systems for a range of applications.
3. Interested in helping out, sharing something interesting, or have an idea for something we could do?
If so, please get in touch with us! Shoot us an email at contributions AT <this domain>, there are loads of ways you can get involved, and many we haven’t even thought of, but here’s a few ideas of what you could do:
- Be a guest on our podcast series: you can talk about anything vaguely related to the field, whether it’s comments on life as a student/researcher, some thoughts you’ve had about the field, some interesting work you want to share, or if you want to speak out about something like mental health, this is the perfect place to do it!
- Present a poster-podcast! This is something we’re very excited to try out, and we hope you feel the same: the idea is to try to explain something (it doesn’t have to be your own work) within a 20-30 minute podcast, with the challenge that all reference material needs to fit into a poster format.
- Want to advertise something on our newsletter? Perhaps you’ve just passed your thesis defense, or are looking for a team for a hackathon, or have a job posting to share, or have just written a blog post you think might be of interest; whatever the case we’d love to help you share the good news!
- We’re also open to more conventional seminar-esque things like talks or journal clubs.
We’re looking forward to getting to hear from you, and getting to know you better!