Linker-mediated assembly: from colloidal LEGOs to COVID testing

 

Linker-mediated assembly: from colloidal LEGOs to COVID testing

 

Date: 14^th January, 2025 (Tuesday)

Time: 3:30 - 4:30 pm (HKT)

 

Venue: Lecture Theatre P3, Chong Yuet Ming Physics Building

 

Prof. Ran NI

Nanyang Technological University

 

Dr. Ni is an associate professor in the School of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology in Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He received his Ph.D of Physics in 2012 from Utrecht University (the Netherlands) working with Prof. Marjolein Dijkstra focusing on the computational study on the self-assembly of colloidal systems. From 2012 to 2014, he did his postdoc with Profs. Martien A. Cohen Stuart and Peter G. Bolhuis focusing on the self-assembly of fibril-forming polypeptides. In 2014, he was awarded the NWO VENI fellowship which is the most prestigious personal grant for young scientists in the Netherlands to start independent research lines. In 2016, he was awarded the Best Research Prize by the European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) Action – Flowing Matter [An annual prize for European Early Stage Researchers in soft matter within eight years after the date of PhD]. His research has been published in a number of top scientific journals, e.g. Nature, Nature Communications , Science Advances, PNAS, PRL, etc.

 

In this talk, I will present our recent work on linker-mediated designed assembly, including the linker-mediated addressable assembly of DNA-coated colloids [1], and the superselectivity in the linker-mediated adsorption of DNA coated colloids [2]. I will discuss how we can use linkers as a smart agent to realise the designed precise fabrication on the nano scale as well as to design new sensors for detecting biomarkers, e.g., COVID.