HUGE congratulations to our TAPDANCE lab group member Dr Constantine Evans who is the 2025 recipient of the prestigious Dirks Prize 🧬👏
The prize recognizes exceptional early career achievement by a researcher working in any area of molecular programming including theory, experimentation and computation.
Read more here:
https://lnkd.in/e68_Evfm
DISCO is part of a portfolio of 9 EIC funded projects. As part of our work as a portfolio we have a dedicated DigNA portfolio LinkedIn page and are running a series of free educational webinars that aim to inform and communicate about the novel area of DNA data storage. They are aimed at a general audience and offer a fascinating insight into this new technology.
The image below is from a recent post showing an electron microscopy image of a DVD with visible pits representing data storage overlaid with small silica (glass) beads encapsulating DNA which has been used to store information.
See the full post here
A busy week for the DISCO lab! We were delighted to welcome Prof. Andrew Turberfield for a visit to the Hamilton Institute where he met with each of the members of the DISCO team followed by a fascinating public talk at the Hamilton Institute Seminar on building “Molecular Structures and Machines from DNA”. We also welcomed over 30 schoolgirls ages 10 to 15 and their parents from the recently established girls in STEM afterschool club to tour the DISCO labs. They learned about the “Relationship between DNA and Computers” with a presentation from senior postdoc Dr Abeer Eshra and then split into 3 groups to take it in turns to learn how to use a Nanodrop and an Echo Liquid Handler with Abeer; how to use an Atomic Force Microscope with Cai Wood; and to understand how single strands of DNA will fold due to complementary base pairing with PhD student Ahmed Shalaby.
DISCO coordinator Prof Damien Woods, postdoctoral researcher Dr Abeer Eshra and project manager Dr Kim Reilly were delighted to be invited as judges for the 2025 SciFest competition at Maynooth Post Primary. SciFest is an annual programme that seeks to inspire the next generation of STEM students, and its true to say we were amazed and impressed by the quality, curiosity and ingenuity on display. Well done to all the students who participated!
Our current digital data storage technologies are reaching 🌍sustainability limits due to high energy consumption and reliance on scarce and toxic materials, as well as having limited data integrity over time. To address these challenges, the European Commission launched the “DNA-based digital data storage” Pathfinder Challenge, funding nine projects dedicated to developing scalable and reliable approaches for using DNA as a general-purpose data storage medium. These projects form the #DigNA portfolio.
As part of our work the #DigNA portfolio is running a series of free public webinars, and recordings of the first two are now available!
Each webinar is around 1 hour, the perfect way to learn something new over a 🥗 lunchbreak or morning 🚂 commute. Check out the recordings below 👇 👇 👇
Webinar 1: “State of the Art DNA Data Storage” hosted by Robert Grass and Tomaž Karčnik 🎥 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNv72a1ugiA
Webinar 2: “Error Correction and Coding for DNA Storage” with Eitan Yaakobi and Thomas Heinis 🎥 Watch here: https://lnkd.in/dpetYypx
Are you looking for a new role in 2025? We are recruiting for Senior Postdoc and Junior Postdoc positions to work on DNA computation and DNA molecular robotics – closing date is 11th May 2025.
Roles are full time and based at Maynooth University, Ireland. To read more and apply:
https://universityvacancies.com/maynooth-university/post-doctoral-researcher-senior-post-doctoral-researcher-moleculardna-computing