Jacob Majikes: The boring, basic details of molecular programming

On this episode the molpigs team talks with Jacob Majikes, the ‘boring materials physics’ expert of the DNA origami field. We discuss the incentive structures of the field, Hatch Act violations*, and how guinea pig bedding relates to biologics production. He explains to us how the National Institute of Standards and Technology became interested in DNA origami and how defining ‘yield’ of a structure is a more challenging problem than you would expect. He also shares the excitement and challenges of organizing FNANO, one of DNA origami’s annual conferences, and how he thinks the conferences will develop into the future.

* Jacob is not entirely sure on his description of the Hatch Act!

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Jacob Majikes is a Research Scientist in the Microsystems and Nanotechnology Division of NIST. He received his B.S. and Ph.D. in materials science and engineering from North Carolina State University. His doctoral research focused on probing the folding/assembly of DNA origami nanostructures. Jacob is working with Alex Liddle to develop metrics to quantify the yield of discrete DNA nanostructures and to understand the effect of structure design on yield.

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Find more information at the episode page here:
https://podcast.molpi.gs/media/majikes-j-24e8817ee9f1e8e6/