Virtual participation: Zoom details available here
Speaker: Professor Damien Baigl, Ecole Normale Supérieure (ENS), Paris
Title: "Synthetic self-assembly with life-like properties"
Abstract: Self-assembly is both an advantageously spontaneous process to organize molecular or colloidal entities into functional superstructures and a key-feature of how life builds its components. However, compared to their living counterparts, synthetic materials made by self-assembly usually lack some of the interesting properties of living systems such as multicomponent character or capability to adapt, transform and evolve. In this presentation, I will describe different systems where life-like properties can emerge from self-assembled synthetic materials. I will first show that user-defined and elaborate nanostructures can be obtained by the isothermal self-assembly of hundreds of different DNA bricks and proteins with a unique capability to self-organize, grow, optimize, adapt and evolve. At a micro- to macroscopic scale, I will describe self-assembled colloidal crystals evidencing other interesting life-like properties, such as dissipative organization or living crystallization.
Biography: Damien Baigl is exceptional class professor at Ecole Normale Supérieure (ENS) in Paris, senior member of the University Institute of France (IUF) and twice ERC awardee (starting grant in 2011–2015, advanced grant since 2023). After a PhD at College de France in Paris (2000–2003) and a post-doc at Kyoto University (2003–2005), he got a permanent position at the Department of Chemistry of ENS in 2005 where he became full professor in 2010. Curiosity-driven, he has a passion for exploration and soft matter systems. His current research interests include dynamic DNA nanotechnology, reconfigurable self-assembly, soft synthetic biology, coffee-ring effect, colloidal organization at fluid interfaces, synthetic cells, and genetic encoding of soft matter properties.