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SUMMARY:Biophysics Seminar MT3 - Dr Yuval Elani (Dept. of Chemical Enginee
 ring\, Imperial College London)\, Eryk Ratajczyk (Biophysics\, University 
 of Oxford)
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20231117T100000Z
DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20231117T110000Z
UID:https://new.talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/47519f84-ac08-4e7e-b9e9-c49d660a0e
 1f/
DESCRIPTION:Talk 1: Building a new biology: design and construction of syn
 thetic cells\nDr Yuval Elani\; Dept. of Chemical Engineering\, Imperial Co
 llege London\n      \nAbstract:\nArtificial cells are structures that are 
 constructed from the bottom-up using both synthetic and biological compone
 nts\, which resemble biological cells in form and function (Figure below).
  They are used both as simplified cell models\, and as smart microdevices 
 with a range of potential applications in industrial and clinical biotechn
 ology. However\, there are a lack of tools available for the construction 
 of artificial cells that allow biomimetic architectures and behaviours to 
 be dialled in a controlled and reproducible fashion. This means that the c
 apabilities of artificial cells cannot match their biological counterparts
 .\n \nIn this talk\, I will present some of our efforts to combat this. We
  have developed a toolkit for the construction of artificial cells of defi
 ned size\, content\, compartmentalisation\, and connectivity. These are ba
 sed on microfluidic\, optical tweezer\, and novel bio- membrane technologi
 es. We are now moving away from reproducing cellular architectures\, and t
 owards mimicking biological behaviours that can be considered the hallmark
 s of life (sense/response\, communication\, motility\, metabolism\, signal
 ling\, symbiosis etc.) We are also exploring how artificial cells can be i
 nterfaced with the biological cells to form a new class of hybrid living/s
 ynthetic organisms (cellular bionics).\n\n\nTalk 2: Coarse-grained modelli
 ng of DNA-RNA hybrids\nEryk Ratajczyk\; Turberfield Group\, Biophysics & K
 avli\, University of Oxford\n\nAbstract:\nDNA-RNA hybridisation is involve
 d in biological processes such as transcription and DNA replication and is
  also highly relevant to biotechnological applications including antisense
  therapy and CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing. By combining existing coarse-graine
 d models for DNA and RNA\, we enable the computational study of DNA-RNA hy
 brid systems on timescales inaccessible to all-atom simulations. We use ou
 r model to simulate toehold-mediated strand displacement\, finding good ag
 reement with experimental data on sequence-dependent kinetics\, and subseq
 uently demonstrate how the base distribution along a strand can be used to
  modulate displacement kinetics. Finally\, we use the model to study R-loo
 ps\, which reveals a free energy landscape governed by entropic effects. C
 urrently\, we are beginning to use the model for simulations of RNA strand
  invasion in the context of CRISPR-Cas9.\nSpeakers:\nDr Yuval Elani (Dept.
  of Chemical Engineering\, Imperial College London)\, Eryk Ratajczyk (Biop
 hysics\, University of Oxford)
LOCATION:Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin Building (Phase 1 Seminar Room 20-026\, 
 wheelchair accessible)\, off South Parks Road OX1 3QU
TZID:Europe/London
URL:https://new.talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/47519f84-ac08-4e7e-b9e9-c49d660a0e
 1f/
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DESCRIPTION:Talk:Biophysics Seminar MT3 - Dr Yuval Elani (Dept. of Chemica
 l Engineering\, Imperial College London)\, Eryk Ratajczyk (Biophysics\, Un
 iversity of Oxford)
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