WEHI Postgraduate Seminar Series hosted by the Education Committee

Professor Rory Bowden

Laboratory Head – Advanced Genomics Facility – Advanced Technology and Biology division, WEHI

DNA: Why all the fuss?

Davis Auditorium

Join via TEAMS

Including Q&A session

The central roles that DNA and its sister molecule, RNA, play in biology are well known.
 

This presentation aims to shift the focus from the biological function of naturally occurring nucleic acids to the technologies that are enabled by their basic properties. Recent years have seen an explosion of applications for, and enabled by, DNA. These include, but are not limited to, the chemical synthesis of DNA for precise assembly, the production of complex libraries to enable massively parallel sequencing and genome-scale functional screens, and the adoption of short DNA tags as labels or proxies in assays with sequencing as a readout, where the items being counted include individual molecules, cells or antibodies, among other things. We will also make a short excursion from the utility of pure sequences to its useful 3-D functions and questionable applications outside biology. This presentation is informed by experiences in my scientific career, which has essentially coincided with the genomic era.  

Prof Rory Bowden is Genomics Lab Head. Undertaking his PhD at Cambridge from 1994, he witnessed the excitement of the Human Genome Project, and afterwards became committed to applying the earliest commercial genomics technologies in scientific research. Old enough to have learned molecular biology before there was a kit for every application, he remains captivated by exploring ways to manipulate DNA into revealing the secrets of nature.

All welcome!