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 podcasts, keep you up to date on goings-on in our newsletter, and run a slack for discussion and fostering collaboration.
Hello and welcome back to the molpigs newsletter! Feel free to hang out on the molpigs slack! We are also on twitter!
All the past podcasts and tutorials can be found here. Enjoy!
- Podcast with Jacob Majikes: The boring, basic details of molecular programming
- Reading Group “The Early Days of DNA Computing”
- Recruiting: molpigs team member!
1. Podcast with Jacob Majikes: The boring, basic details of molecular programming
On this episode the molpigs team talks with Jacob Majikes, the “boring materials physics” expert of the DNA origami field. We discuss the incentive structures of the field, Hatch Act violations, and how guinea pig bedding relates to biologics production. He explains to us how the National Institute of Standards became interested in DNA origami and how defining ‘yield’ of a structure is a more challenging problem than you would expect. He also shares the excitement and challenges of organizing FNANO, one of DNA origami’s annual conferences, and how he thinks the conferences will develop into the future.
Jacob Majikes is a Research Scientist in the Microsystems and Nanotechnology Division. He received his B.S. and Ph.D. in materials science and engineering from North Carolina State University. His doctoral research focused on probing the folding/assembly of DNA origami nanostructures. Jacob is working with Alex Liddle to develop metrics to quantify the yield of discrete DNA nanostructures and to understand the effect of structure design on yield.
2. Reading Group “The Early Days of DNA Computing”, week 1
The reading group “The Early Days of DNA Computing” will start this week! We will read seven papers over seven weeks. The first paper is “Molecular Computation of Solutions to Combinatorial Problems”, Adleman 1994. Please come with thoughts/questions/ideas/whatever in mind, and we will have a gathering and discussion session!
We will have 2 groups. If you are interested in joining, please fill in the form to get meeting information.
- March 6th 20:00 UTC (March 6th, noon PT), led by Erik and Javier.
- March 7th 00:00 UTC (March 6th, 4pm PT), led by Boya and Spencer.
Feel free to join the #reading-group channel on molpigs Slack for further discussions.
3. Recruiting: molpigs team member!
The molpigs team is looking for new members helping to organize the molpigs events and co-shape the future of molpigs. In you are interested, please get in touch!
Useful Links
- Slack invitation
- Follow us on twitter
- Find our podcasts on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google, Amazon, Stitcher, TuneIn, Youtube, and RSS
- Sign up to the newsletter of the Molecular Programming Society