(417b) DNA Assembly at Nanometer, Micrometer, and Millimeter Length Scales

This presentation will provide an overview of recent hierarchical models and computational approaches developed by our research group to investigate the effects of confinement, hydrodynamic interactions, and salt concentration, on the structure and properties of DNA, both at equilibrium and beyond equilibrium. Particular emphasis will be placed on recently proposed detailed models and methods designed to describe the manipulation of DNA in microfluidic devices, the melting and rehybridization of DNA at the single nucleotide level, and DNA molecular recognition in DNA-protein complexes. The relevance of the models will be discussed in the context of nanofluidic designs for applications in optimal mapping, and in the context of recent experiments on DNA packaging in chromatin.