David Yu Zhang
The NewScientist article Molecular “amplifier” boosts DNA computing said
DNA-based computing just got a big boost. A method of amplifying weak chemical signals in a way that can be tailored to specific molecules has brought DNA-based circuits closer to practical applications.
Now David Zhang in Winfree’s group and colleagues have shown how to perform DNA amplification without the use of enzymes, making the process simpler and much more configurable, since it can be tailored to any DNA strand.
The process makes use of the fact that complimentary stretches of DNA will bind together. A “catalyst” strand of DNA is used to pull another strand free from several strands bound together.
David Yu Zhang is Graduate Student, Computational Neural Systems
Hertz Fellow, Caltech. His research interests are:
Specific measurement of nucleic acid concentration dynamics (chemical
oscilloscope),
Non-enzymatic DNA-based catalysis (chemical fuels),
Hybridization-based DNA logic gates (chemical logic),
Bistable and winner-take-all circuits (chemical memory),
Autonomous chemical oscillatory networks (chemical timing),
Localized signal integration and thresholded output response
(chemical neuron), String matching algorithms, and
Cellular automata and error correction.
Dave authored
An Enzyme-Free Triplex-Based NAND Gate, and
coauthored
A DNA superstructure-based replicator without product
inhibition,
FFT-based Algorithms for the String Matching with Mismatches
Problem,
A Clocked DNA-Based Replicator,
Enzyme-Free Nucleic Acid Logic Circuits,
Entropy-Driven DNA-Based Catalyst System,
In Vitro Transcriptional Circuits,
Multiplexing and M# Measurement in Spectral Hole Burning
Medium,
Derivation and Measurement of the M# in Spectral Hole Burning
Media,
and
Engineering Entropy-Driven Reactions and Networks Catalyzed by
DNA.
Dave earned a B.S. at the California Institute of Technology in 2005
and is expected to earn a Ph.D. at the California Institute of
Technology in 2009.
He has the patent
Nucleic acid-based logic circuits.
