Ouldridge group @ Imperial

Self-indulgent thoughts of a scientist and collaborators working at the interface between biology, chemistry and physics. In a Bioengineering Department.

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This work was done in @ImperialBioeng as part of @ICPhysicsofLife

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Very happy to (finally) get Ben's work on the fundamental thermodynamics of molecular templating published in Newton

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Ben shows that we've fundamentally misunderstood why producing accurate copies of a polymer template - as when a DNA sequence is copied into RNA - is necessarily "costly". His results suggest new paradigms for low-cost, accurate molecular templating.

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We compare it's operation to our own complementary work on a similar theme https://t.co/BMsLz8VCty

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Rakesh and Tom have just published a news and views in @NatureNano (link below) on building synthetic information ratchets for enhanced molecular recognition. Work done at @IC_CSynBio in @ImperialBioeng

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In the article we discuss a recent paper from the Prins group, https://t.co/R3gzjFqA0G, in which the authors drive a DNA-based recognition process out of equilibrium, enhancing accuracy.

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https://t.co/MFJEjzXoea

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We have a PDRA position available for up to 12 months simulating the @ox_DNA model as part of the NEO consortium investigating Data storage in DNA origami.

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Link in replies. The role will involve the simulation of both large structures and small, dynamic processes. We're particularly interested in people who already have expertise in oxDNA

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Based on the mechanism developed by Javi here:
https://t.co/gKRpqCHHyb

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Very happy that Javi and Rakesh's paper has finally come out in @NatureChemistry (link in reply). We use DNA nanotechnology to implement a synthetic molecular templating system - a minimal analog of the processes that are crucial to assembling complex proteins in the cell.

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https://t.co/A8torPebQZ

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Both have previously been considered in isolation, but Jeremy finds that their interplay produces qualitatively novel behaviour. Work done as part of @ImperialBioeng @IC_CSynBio @ICPhysicsofLife

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Congratulations to Jeremy Guntoro, whose paper on the theory of molecular copying was published on Friday in JCP

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In this work, Jeremy combines two important ideas - that molecular templating (the process that occurs during RNA transcription or protein translation) must produce molecules that detach from their template, and that the recognition reactions driving templating vary in strength