10.29 Deborah Fygenson Group

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glegrady
Posts: 203
Joined: Wed Sep 22, 2010 12:26 pm

10.29 Deborah Fygenson Group

Post by glegrady » Tue Oct 29, 2013 10:05 pm

The sub-cellular biological world is full of phenomena that challenge physical intuition: single-molecule machines, self-assembling architectures and spontaneous information processing. These phenomena derive from the physical character of biological macromolecules, which have passed through the evolutionary design process and acquired the character of a technology. Biological science has provided a qualitative understanding of many macromolecular technological wonders, at least in their biological context, but we are far from having the sort of profound understanding that would enable us to rationally design similar macromolecular devices or interactions, with or without biological relevance. In many cases, even an empirical basis for quantitative, predictive modeling is lacking. Elucidation of the physical principles that define and constrain macromolecular technology abstracted from biological systems is the underlying theme of research in Fygenson Lab.

http://web.physics.ucsb.edu/~deborah/res/index.htm
George Legrady
legrady@mat.ucsb.edu

sterlingcrispin
Posts: 22
Joined: Thu Oct 03, 2013 10:34 am

Re: 10.29 Deborah Fygenson Group

Post by sterlingcrispin » Wed Dec 18, 2013 1:46 pm

attached are photos from the lab visit
Attachments
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sterlingcrispin
Posts: 22
Joined: Thu Oct 03, 2013 10:34 am

Re: 10.29 Deborah Fygenson Group

Post by sterlingcrispin » Wed Dec 18, 2013 3:03 pm

Part of the work involves simplifying a set of information to make it readable to other people. Deborah asks, "whats the point if the map of the thing is as complex and large as the thing itself?"

Curiosity is a driving force in her research and she works with lipid nanotubes, dna, and protein. She states that, "anything that is bigger than light, you can see with light" but there is a tradeoff between resolution and time regarding the measuring frequency when taking images.

Fygenson combines silver nitrate, DNA and sodium borohydrate to create silver super atoms in DNA. The DNA functions like an antenna absorbing light and passing it into silver super atoms.

Lab context:
Silver super atoms in DNA hosts
DNA nanotubes
Lipid structures, mechanics & dynamics

a) How do you gather data - direct observation
b) What kind of technology is used - visible light microscopes, fluorescence tools, optical filters, computers
c) Does the research make you design new technology - -
d) How is your data analyzed - amplitude and intensity of observations are analyzed on computers
e) How do you make assumptions based on the analysis -

f) How does the analysis result in discovery -
g) How do you represent the results - - research papers containing graphs and illustrative diagrams diagrams

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