Distinguished Seminar Series

Wednesday, February 5, 2025

9:30 – 10:30am, MJIS 1001

https://purdue-edu.zoom.us/j/94696307969

“Building Synthetic Molecular Machines Using the Code of Life”

Aleksei Aksimentiev, Ph.D

Professor of Biological Physics, Barden Faculty Scholar

Department of Physics

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Abstract: While incremental miniaturization of a man-made machine is possible by simply reducing the

size of its parts, radical miniaturization typically requires re-evaluation of physical principles that govern

the machine's operation. Biological systems provide outstanding examples of machines that operate

with high precision and efficiency at the nanoscale. Replicating such functionality in man-made systems

remains an outstanding scientific and technological challenge. In this lecture, I will describe our recent

work directed at designing synthetic molecular systems that reproduce and sometimes outperformed

the functionality of biological machines. The topics to be discussed include self-assembled molecular

systems that transport water, ions, and lipids across biological membranes and convert electric fields

into rotary motion. The lecture will highlight the use of microscopic simulations to design and explore

nanoscale biomolecular systems.

Bio: Dr. Aleksei Aksimentiev received his Master's degree in physics from Ivan Franko National

University of Lviv (Ukraine), and his Ph.D. in chemistry from the Institute of Physical Chemistry,

Warsaw, Poland. After a brief postdoctoral training at Mitsui Chemicals, Japan, he joined the

Theoretical and Computational Biophysics Group, Urbana, IL, as a postdoctoral research associate. In

2005, he became a faculty member of the Physics Department at the University of Illinois, where he is

currently a professor of physics. His research interests include biological and synthetic DNA systems,

nanopore sequencing, and molecular mechanisms of viral infection.

~BME Host: Leopold Green~

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Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering

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