Events

BioInspired Self-Organization to Build the Materials of Tomorrow

Presented by Prof. Jennifer Ross
Hosted by Prof. Laura Kaufman

Abstract:
Biological systems have the incredible ability to harness active, energy-using systems to cause self-organization resulting in astonishing capabilities such as monitoring, healing, and responding to their environment. It appears that biological systems can rectify active processes into productive work using enzymes, assemblies of enzymes, and larger-scale machines made of those assemblies. We seek to recapitulate and understand the phenomena of biological self-organization from the molecular to the cellular scale in the hopes of someday recreating synthetic systems with the same astonishing properties. In our lab, we have focused on two main systems - the cytoskeleton and enzyme-driven active matter. The cytoskeleton is a naturally occurring biological system that is not only used for mechanical structures but is made from enzymes with a host of associated proteins that are both passive and active. The natural functions of the cytoskeleton offer a unique glimpse into how cells self-organize to perform essential functions such as motility, transport, and cell division. The second, relatively new direction, takes a synthetic approach using DNA-origami to program active matter particles that are driven by enzymes. This approach will allow us to explore the fundamental mechanisms that rectify active process such as shape, orientation, and multiplicity of active units. We will report on new findings from both systems. Future explorations of these systems will inform on the mechanistic workings of biological systems and allow us to make inroads on the materials of the future.

Bio:
Ross is an award-winning biophysicist studying the organization of the microtubule cytoskeleton and microtubule-based enzymes using high-resolution single molecule imaging techniques. She won the Cottrell Scholars Award from Research Corporation, the Margaret Oakley-Dayhoff Award from the Biophysical Society, an INSPIRE Award from National Science Foundation, and is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She has a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of California Santa Barbara, and did postdoctoral work at the University of Pennsylvania, School of Medicine. In 2020, she became department chair of Physics at Syracuse University. Ross is an innovative educator as well as scientist, having created a novel interdisciplinary optics course where students build their own microscopes. This course has been adapted and taught at several international short courses on microscopy including Analytical and Quantitative Microscopy (AQLM) at the Marine Biology Laboratory and the Bangalore Microscopy Course at the National Centre for Biological Science in Bangalore, India. Ross is also an advocate for women and under-represented groups in Physics, and her lab is a space where anyone can come to learn problem solving concepts, fundamental lab skills, and professional development abilities that can serve them throughout their lifetime.

Read more about the Ross Lab here