GRASP Seminar: Eric Klavins, University of Washington, “Programmed Molecular Self-Organization – Robots behaving like molecules and molecules behaving like robots”

Abstract: Eric Klavins will describe work in which his group has implemented programmed chemical reaction networks with either robots that behave like molecules or molecules that behave like robots. Such systems are representative of programmable self-organization in which engineered local interactions between simple components can give rise to predictable and useful global behaviors. Examples of such systems abound in nature, such as in the cell where proteins, nucleic acids, lipids and other molecules self-organize to produce the global behavior of the cell. His group studies engineering approaches that mimic such architectures in simple settings.