Biological organisms process information and control cellular behavior
using sophisticated biochemical circuits. In order to engineer circuits
of similar complexity and thus “program” biology we need to develop the
molecular tools for (i) accurate detection of complex cellular states and
expression patterns, and (ii) control and modulation of those states. In
my research I am pursuing a comprehensive approach for solving these
problems using nucleic acid-based molecular circuitry.
In my talk, I will present two current projects on sensing and control
of gene expression patterns. First, I will talk about DNA logic circuits
for diagnostic applications. We are building DNA-based biosensing circuits
that can autonomously analyze and interpret the information encoded in a
set of molecular disease markers. I will present a mechanism for detection
and enzyme-free isothermal amplification of single-stranded nucleic acids
that can robustly distinguish between nucleic acids that differ only in a
single nucleotide.
In the second part of my talk, I will focus on our work on microRNA biology
and will introduce a microRNA-based gene regulatory network that can
generate pulses in protein expression. I will discuss how this network
can be tuned to generate a range of pulsing behaviors.