Mathematics Colloquia and Seminars

Return to Colloquia & Seminar listing

Advances in the theory of DNA elasticity enhanced our understanding of a wide range of phenomena associated with biological function and storage of DNA. Classical elastic rod models of DNA helped to characterize DNA supercoiling, while the development of a base-pair level model for DNA made it possible to incorporate the effects of nucleotide sequence and the negative charge of DNA in mesoscale models of complex DNA-protein assemblies, which yielded insights into the role of DNA deformability in gene regulation. This talk will give an overview of the research of the speaker on the above topics, in particular, methods for solving equilibrium equations of the elastic rod model for DNA and determining the stability of equilibrium configurations, the application of sequence‑dependent DNA elasticity in modeling of DNA-protein complexes, dynamical interaction of DNA with fluid, and studies of the effect of non-specific binding proteins on DNA looping efficiency. Emphasis will be placed on the appearance of nonlinear phenomena such as bifurcations and multistability.

Faculty host: Mariel Vazquez Please contact Professor Vazquez if you would like to meet with the speaker or join the dinner after the talk (mariel@math.ucdavis.edu)