{"583816":{"#nid":"583816","#data":{"type":"event","title":"The Physics of Genes and the Promise of Personalized Medicine","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ESchool of Physics Inquiring Minds Public Lecture: Prof. Alek Aksimentiev, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign \u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThe\u0026nbsp;twenty-first century is poised to see dramatic advances in medicine. The rapid\u0026nbsp;progress in understanding the molecular causes of disease and the emergence of new\u0026nbsp;treatment strategies are fueled by the development of physical instruments that can characterize biological\u0026nbsp;processes at extreme resolution and provide the means to harness biological systems\u0026nbsp;for technological uses.\u0026nbsp;One common target of such investigations is DNA, which,\u0026nbsp;after water and oxygen, is the most famous\u0026nbsp;molecule of life known. This is not surprising, as the eye-catching double\u0026nbsp;helix of\u0026nbsp;DNA carries instructions to manufacture and assemble all the\u0026nbsp;components of a living organism. The wealth of information encoded in DNA often\u0026nbsp;overshadows its unusual\u0026nbsp;physical properties, for example, the possibility of an\u0026nbsp;effective attraction between same-charge DNA molecules regulated by their\u0026nbsp;nucleotide sequence. Furthermore, the\u0026nbsp;methods used to determine the\u0026nbsp;informational content of DNA\u0026mdash;its nucleotide sequence\u0026mdash;until now relied on\u0026nbsp;biological processes. In this lecture, I will describe our recent efforts\u0026nbsp;to\u0026nbsp;characterize the physical properties of DNA and determine their role in\u0026nbsp;orchestrating the function of a biological cell. I will demonstrate how the\u0026nbsp;physical properties of DNA\u0026nbsp;can be used to build a physics-based reader of the\u0026nbsp;DNA sequence. Finally, I will describe how recent advances in the field of DNA\u0026nbsp;nanobiotechnology are paving the way to\u0026nbsp;personalized medicine. \u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":"","field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"The Physics of Genes and the Promise of Personalized Medicine"}],"uid":"27664","created_gmt":"2016-11-14 13:55:18","changed_gmt":"2017-04-13 21:13:59","author":"Alison Morain","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","field_event_time":{"event_time_start":"2016-11-17T18:00:00-05:00","event_time_end":"2016-11-17T19:00:00-05:00","event_time_end_last":"2016-11-17T19:00:00-05:00","gmt_time_start":"2016-11-17 23:00:00","gmt_time_end":"2016-11-18 00:00:00","gmt_time_end_last":"2016-11-18 00:00:00","rrule":null,"timezone":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"583706":{"id":"583706","type":"image","title":"AlexLecture","body":null,"created":"1478716388","gmt_created":"2016-11-09 18:33:08","changed":"1478716388","gmt_changed":"2016-11-09 18:33:08","alt":"","file":{"fid":"222525","name":"Alex PLexture.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/Alex%20PLexture.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/Alex%20PLexture.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":292074,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/Alex%20PLexture.jpg?itok=-cSpPnxE"}}},"media_ids":["583706"],"groups":[{"id":"126011","name":"School of Physics"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[{"id":"166937","name":"School of Physics"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[{"id":"1795","name":"Seminar\/Lecture\/Colloquium"}],"invited_audience":[{"id":"78761","name":"Faculty\/Staff"},{"id":"78771","name":"Public"},{"id":"78751","name":"Undergraduate students"},{"id":"174045","name":"Graduate students"}],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003Eamorain@gatech.edu\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}