Current Lab Members

Divita Mathur

Eric Henderson

Our interests are broadly cross-diciplinary with emphasis on synthetic biology, computer science applied to biological systems, DNA nanotechnology and hardware/instrumentation development. Post-docs and graduate students will find the Henderson lab to be an environment that nurtures independent growth and fearless (but thoughtful) approaches to solving interesting problems.

Science

Latest Paper

Mathur, D. and Henderson, E. (2012) Complex DNA Nanostructures from Oligonucleotide Ensembles, ACS Synthetic Biology, in press.

Research Interests

DNA Nanostructures and Devices: We are developing a new method for creating 2D and 3D DNA nanostructures. This method uses DNA origami as a design tool but does not require a single-stranded scaffold of biological origin. In this way, our method (DNA NOrigami?) allows the creation of any number of DNA nanostructures with much fewer restrictions on size and, importantly, simultaneous assembly in a single reaction ("single pot" self-assembly). Creating useful machines and expanding the general method of DNA-based nanodevice construction are currently the main objectives. The header shows B-DNA:G-DNA origami hybrids (Rasna Walia, 2010).

BioInspired Wind Energy: Working with Dr. Michael McCloskey we developed bioInspired devices that mimic the natural motions of plants but convert that motion into electricity. This was an NSF funded SBIR project carried out by Creodyne, llc

Instrumentation: We continue to develop instrumentation for use in biotechnology.

Recent Funding

2012

Robust Molecular Programming: Advances in the Design and Verification of Reliable Self-Assembling Nanosystems
National Science Foundation
$900,000

DNA Nanomachine For Pathogen Diagnostics Phase I
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
$100,000

2011

EAGER: Collaborative Research: Modeling and Analysis of Molecular Programming and Nanoscale Self-Assembly 
National Science Foundation
$189,016

2010

BioInspired Wind Energy (to Creodyne, llc)
National Science Foundation SBIR Phase I
$150,000

Teaching

Henderson has taught Molecular Biology, Developmental Biology, Molecular Genetics, and Cell Physiology of Human Disease. His current teaching assignment (F 2012) is GDCB 505: Entrepreneurship in Science and Technology. This course will be taught in parallel with Biology 495 (special topics) to allow broad access to the key tools technologists need to start and run successful companies.

GDCB 505/Biol 495

Entrepreneurship in Science and Technology

Interested students should contact Henderson directly.

Entrepreneurship

Henderson is involved in several entrepreneurial efforts including:

Creodyne, llc - a new technology startup
BumbleFunk Music - recording studio