User:Despaux

Leo d'Espaux
Graduate Student Smolke Lab Stanford Bioengineering

Education
Ph.D. Candidate, Chemical Engineering, Caltech , 2007-present M.S., Chemical Engineering, Caltech , 2007 B.S., Chemical Engineering, Cornell , 2005

Research
My research concerns using engineered RNA as adaptive gene regulatory elements. These RNAs are able to detect changes in the cellular environment, e.g., cancerous or benign, and act in response to that information, e.g., lead the cell to kill itself or do nothing. I'm currently designing and testing RNA molecules to efficiently knock down genes in cancerous cells but not in normal cells. In addition, I'm extending existing RNA regulatory platforms to be responsive to new signals, or to respond to signals with improved dynamics.

Publications

 * 1) “Controlled assembly of dendrimer like DNA”, Y. Li, Y.D. Tseng, S.Y. Kwon, L. d'Espaux, J.S. Bunch, P.L McEuen, and D. Luo, Nature Materials 3, 38-42, (January, 2004). doi:10.1038/nmat1045 pmid:14704783. PubMed
 * 2) “Honeycomb-shaped DNA”,  L. d’Espaux, and D. Luo, Proceedings of the 18th Annual Cornell Undergraduate Research Board Forum, 69 (March, 2002)

Miscellaneous
 