5. Multiscale Computation in Nature
• A Research Programme
Centro Nacional de Biotecnologia – Madrid - 2018
Programmable algorithmic entry to
the vast world of nanoscale physical,
chemical & biological systems and
processes
ComputerScience
Information & Algorithms
Embedded behavior
Robustness
Uncertainty
Complexity
Tradeoffs
How does “The Logistics of Small Things” look like?
How does “The Decision Making in/with Small Things” take place?
How is “Uncertainty Handled by Small Things” ?
How to stack-up “abstractions” to achieve higher complexities programmatically?
6. • 2 nm in diameter
• 0.34 nm width of
nt
• 1 turn = 10.5bp
Stability based on:
• base pairing
• base stacking
DNA nanotechnology
dates back to ‘80
Centro Nacional de Biotecnologia – Madrid - 2018
DNA as nanomaterial
7. DNA AND RNA ORIGAMI TECHNIQUE: MAIN CONCEPT
Centro Nacional de Biotecnologia – Madrid - 2018
11. Inten7on
• Develop DNA/RNA origami techniques that are cell-
compa7ble
– As liEle biological crosstalk as possible
– Folding buffer ≈ cell cytoplasm || colony/biofilm extracellular media
– Physiological temperatures
– Addressability
– Survivability
• Why?
– Synthesis of DNA/RNA origami nanostructures in vivo.
• RNA origami as programmable loci to co-locate bio-processes (e.g.
biosynthesis pathways)
• New kinds of post-transcrip7on, post-transla7on control devices
– Cell-instructable origami nanostructures ex vivo.
• New kinds of inter-cellular communica7on devices, mul7-cellular
organisa7on architects
Centro Nacional de Biotecnologia – Madrid - 2018
41. Alam et al., ACS Synth. Biol. 2017, 6, 1710-1721.
Split Broccoli for Visualising RNA-RNA Assembly In Vivo
Centro Nacional de Biotecnologia – Madrid - 2018
43. F-30 Broccoli
' B i o - o r t h o g o n a l ' s t r u c t u r e
reengineered from ϕ29 three-way
junc7on mo7f
(Filonov et al. Chem. Biol. 2015 22,
649-660)
m-Fold Predicted Structures and Split System Design
l 8 base pairs of F-30 Arm 1
l Elimina7on of the terminal 4 nt
loop UUCG
l Elonga7on in 5' and 3' end with
RNA sequences complementary
to a pre-selected DBS
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54. 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4
STABILITY OF DBS RNA SCAFFOLD IN VIVO (2)
RNA DBS electropora7on in E.coli
Cells recovery
Cells embedding in agarose plugs and lysis
Agarose plugs loading in wells (1% agarose gel)
A488 no DBS sequences were used as nega7ve control: both sequences do not show a dis7nct
band. Centro Nacional de Biotecnologia – Madrid - 2018
58. • DNA data structures for informa7on processing
• Biological data with programma7c API
Figure 2: Data structures, and common operations to store and retrieve ordered information
A StackA Stack
B QueueB Queue
C TreeC Tree
Last In
First Out
push(data)
pop()
enqueue(data)
dequeue()
First In
First Out
data4
data3
data4
data2
data1
data1
data6
34
2
5
Sub-Tree
Root
Parent Node Child Node
Siblings
Leaf Node
data1
data2
data3
data4
data5
data6
data7
data8
data9
data10
graft(subtree)
prune(subtree)
add(data, parent)
search(data)
getparent(data)
Centro Nacional de Biotecnologia – Madrid - 2018
61. DNA “Bricks”
Smallest brick: 22nt Largest brick: 137nt
l* A
(S) Start
(P) Push
(Q) Pop
(R) Read
(X) Write_x
(TX) Report_x
(TY) Report_y
(Y) Write_y
B* C* A
w*
Y
w
i h
B C A*
A* B
d
C
d*
e
A B* C*
d*
e*
d
B* C* A
v*
X
v
g f
(Z) Releaser
m* l*
r X*
r Y*
(L) Linker
m l
DNAStrands
Centro Nacional de Biotecnologia – Madrid - 2018