[2018 Fall Life Sciences & IBB Seminar]

▶Subject: Ribocomputing: Leveraging RNA for Computation in the Cell

▶Speaker: Prof. Jongmin Kim

▶Date: 4:30PM/Sept. 7(Fri.)/ 2018

▶Place: Auditorium(1F), Postech Biotech Center

▶Abctract
Synthetic biology aims to develop engineering-driven approaches to the programming of cellular functions that could yield transformative technologies. Synthetic gene circuits that combine DNA, protein, and RNA components have demonstrated a range of functions such as bistability, oscillation, feedback, and logic capabilities. Despite many advances, technical challenges remain for scaling up the complexity of these networks due to the limited number of designable, orthogonal, high-performance parts, the empirical and often tedious composition rules, and substantial resource requirements for encoding and operation. Here, we report a strategy for constructing RNA-only nanodevices to evaluate complex logic in living cells. Such ‘ribocomputing’ systems are composed of de novo designed parts and operate via predictable and designable base-pairing rules, allowing for effective in silico design of computing devices with prescribed configurations and functions in complex cellular environments. We demonstrate that these ribocomputing devices in Escherichia coli can evaluate two-input logic expressions with dynamic range up to 900-fold and scale them to four-input AND, six-input OR, and a complex 12-input logic expression. Successful operation of ribocomputing devices based on programmable RNA interactions suggests that systems employing the same design principles could be implemented in other host organisms or in extracellular settings.

▶Inquiry: Seung Tae Baek (279-2360)

*This seminar will be given in English.
Please refrain from taking photos during seminars.*