SCWIST BROWN BAG SERIES 2020

Self-assembly – a tale of molecular love

Have you ever wondered how bodies are built, how they regrow and repair themselves but none of the man-made objects have those traits? For example, consider natural processes like DNA replication and protein folding, these processes are complex, extremely efficient, and hardly ever make mistakes. These life processes taught chemists to stop synthesizing everything from scratch, rather that molecules can unite to form complex systems by themselves when provided with the right conditions. This phenomenon in which molecules make themselves is referred as self-assembly. Because self-assembled systems are not man-made, existing tools in the synthesis labs are not enough to study how these systems change depending on the environment. In this talk, I will highlight how light can be used as a tool to understand self-assembled systems at the fundamental level and how chemical triggers can be used to manipulate the outcomes of these complex systems. This science provides an opportunity to make better drug delivery systems that have an important functional characteristic “CONTROL”.

Keywords: self-assembly, photochemistry, drug delivery

Program:

12:00-12:10 Welcome

12:10-12:35 Presentation

12:35-12:55 Q&A

12:55-1:00 Closing

SPEAKER

Sree Gayathri Talluri is a PhD candidate at the Department of Chemistry, University of Victoria. Born and brought up in India, Sree completed her Integrated Masters in Chemistry from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur. She has over 7 years of research experience at the bench and worked in several academic and industry labs across the world. She is a trained photo-chemist with expertise in self-assembled systems. During her PhD, Sree is combining her expertise in photochemistry to understand self-assembled systems at the fundamental level. Her research focuses on investigating the function in self-assembled systems using structure and dynamics studies.

Sree is passionate about science communication and outreach. She is currently the interview coordinator for UVic Women in Science, where she works towards amplifying the voices and highlighting the experiences of women in the scientific community across the Vancouver Island. She is a Co-STEM specialist at BC girl guides, where she actively works on designing and developing STEM experiments for girls. She is a scicomm enthusiast and loves to promote her research to the general audience on different platforms. Outside of work, Sree is a part time hiker, experimental baker and loves to travel.