Virtual participation: Zoom details available here
Speaker: Professor Matthew Lakin, The University of New Mexico
Title: "Heterochiral DNA for intracellular computing"
Abstract: Many societal challenges, including the diagnosis and treatment of disease, can be tackled by harnessing the unique capabilities of biology. A key goal in biomedical engineering is to improve human health via personalized biomedicine, which promises targeted treatment guided by the patient's physiology. To this end, I work to engineer and build programmable biological systems for autonomous sensing, decision-making, and response in living organisms. I adopt an interdisciplinary approach, combining experimental validation with formal computational methods for the specification, compilation, and verification of designs. In this talk, I will outline some of my contributions, focusing on the use of heterochiral DNA, which combines both naturally occurring D-DNA and chiral mirror image L-DNA, to build robust nanodevices for sensing and decision-making in the harsh environment of a living cell.
Biography: Matthew Lakin obtained his B.A. and Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Cambridge. After graduating, he worked as a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Biological Computation Group at Microsoft Research in Cambridge where he developed Visual DSD, a popular software tool for DNA circuit design. Dr. Lakin is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of New Mexico, where he also holds a courtesy appointment in the Department of Chemical & Biological Engineering. His interdisciplinary group works on computational and experimental aspects of DNA nanotechnology, molecular computing, and synthetic biology. Dr. Lakin received the NSF CAREER award in 2021 and the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) in 2025. He has also previously won the UNM School of Engineering's Junior Faculty Research Excellence Award.