{"id":7294,"date":"2020-11-16T17:58:29","date_gmt":"2020-11-16T16:58:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/fstm-en\/events\/physics-meets-biology-webinar\/"},"modified":"2020-11-16T17:58:29","modified_gmt":"2020-11-16T16:58:29","slug":"physics-meets-biology-webinar","status":"publish","type":"events","link":"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/fstm-en\/events\/physics-meets-biology-webinar\/","title":{"rendered":"Physics meets Biology Webinar:"},"content":{"rendered":"<section class=\"wp-block-unilux-blocks-free-section section\"><div class=\"container xl:max-w-screen-xl\"><p><\/p><p><strong>Liquid Crystals and the Origin of Life: Features of an Ancient Liquid<\/strong><\/p><p><strong>Crystal World<\/strong><\/p><p>Abstract:<\/p><p>The memory and transfer of genetic information in life is based on the self-assembly of nucleic acid (NA) polymers<\/p><p>in solution into duplex columns of selectively paired and stacked aromatic hydrocarbon nanosheet bases. One of<\/p><p>the great mysteries of evolution is how such a spectacular scenario first appeared in the universe.<\/p><p>In the proposed prebiotic RNA world, oligomers which enable molecular selection, catalysis, and information<\/p><p>transfer are structured by a similar duplex pairing and stacking scheme which is already robust, appearing to have<\/p><p>come from some earlier mode of molecular selection and evolution.<\/p><p>I will describe observations made in a longstanding collaboration with Tommaso Bellini of the University of Milan<\/p><p>of the LC phase behavior of high concentration aqueous solutions of NA monomers and ultra-short oligomers,<\/p><p>including the discovery that polymerization is actually not needed for the stabilization of the duplex base-paired<\/p><p>columnar structure of DNA. Motivated by these results we have developed a model of a pre-RNA world era, a<\/p><p>\u201cliquid crystal world,\u201d in which the duplex pairing and stacking evolves as the primary \u201cpurpose\u201d of autocatalytic<\/p><p>molecular selection and oligomerization. Selection is achieved by the molecular gatekeeping of phase separated<\/p><p>duplex columnar chromonic NA liquid crystal droplets, which also serve as promoters of their own stability,<\/p><p>templating the ligation of selected short oligomers into longer ones.<\/p><p>Biography:<\/p><p>Noel Clark was born in 1940 in Cleveland, Ohio, where he received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in physics from<\/p><p>John Carroll University. He received his Ph.D. from MIT in 1970 and joined the Harvard University Division of<\/p><p>Applied Sciences as a research fellow and junior faculty. He moved to Boulder in 1977 where he is currently<\/p><p>Professor of Physics at the University of Colorado. Clark&#8217;s research has concerned various aspects of soft<\/p><p>condensed matter and complex fluid physics, including liquid crystals, colloids and biophysics. He has been<\/p><p>involved in fundamental studies of liquid crystal ordering in a variety of systems, creating novel phases and<\/p><p>exploring the role of chirality in soft materials. In recent years his research has focused on the role of liquid<\/p><p>crystals sin the appearance of DNA in early life. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA.<\/p><p>In 2003 was awarded the Oliver E. Buckley Condensed Matter Physics Prize of the American Physical Society,<\/p><p>and in 2016 the first Pierre Gilles de Gennes Prize of the International Liquid Crystal Society for career achievement<\/p><p>in liquid crystal science.<\/p><\/div><\/section>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":7295,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"featured_image_focal_point":[],"show_featured_caption":false,"ulux_newsletter_groups":"","uluxPostTitle":"","uluxPrePostTitle":"","_trash_the_other_posts":false,"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"event_start_date":"2020-11-18 16:00:00","event_end_date":"2020-11-18 17:00:00","event_speaker_name":"Talk by Prof. Noel CLARK,University of Colorado, at Boulder (invited by Prof. Jan Lagerwall)","event_speaker_link":"","event_is_online":false,"event_location":"webex","event_street":"","event_location_link":"","event_zip_code":"","event_city":"","event_country":"LU"},"events-topic":[315],"events-type":[],"organisation":[80],"authorship":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v22.3 (Yoast SEO v22.3) - 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