Colloquium Series: Rebecca Schulman (Johns Hopkins University)

Join us for another event in the 2019-2020 Colloquium Series as APS welcomes Rebecca Schulman, PhD. to present on her recent research. Dr. Schulman, associate professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Johns Hopkins University, is an expert in developing programmable, active devices that self-assemble from DNA. Her group focuses on molecular electronic devices and tools for biological and biophysical research.

Developing Design Principles for Active, Programmable Biomolecular Materials and Devices
Rebecca Schulman, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Johns Hopkins University

Biological materials operate far from equilibrium and their dynamic behavior adapts to the surrounding environment because chemical, mechanical and transport processes and networks of interacting signals within them interpret environmental signals and control the kinetics of downstream response. The ability to design active synthetic materials that likewise sense and adopt to their environments by directing autonomous biochemical responses is a central goal of biomolecular material design and biotechnology. I will describe an approach for designing and scaling the complexity and functionality of active, adaptive biomolecular materials in which biomolecular sensors, circuits and actuators are combined within composite material systems and communicate through well-defined chemical interfaces. These composite systems have new properties, such as the ability to respond intelligently to chemical and mechanical stimuli, to change shape or to grow or self-heal. Scaling the complexity and functionality of these materials also presents new challenges in terms of design of the components to enable smooth integrated function.