BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//wp-events-plugin.com//7.4.8//EN
TZID:America/New_York
X-WR-TIMEZONE:America/New_York
BEGIN:VEVENT
UID:0-8701@eng.ufl.edu
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260908T125000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260908T134000
DTSTAMP:20260902T134536Z
URL:https://www.eng.ufl.edu/news-events/events/mae-seminar-from-sequence-t
 o-function-engineering-molecular-devices-for-monitoring-living-systems/
SUMMARY:MAE Seminar: From Sequence to Function: Engineering Molecular Devic
 es for Monitoring Living Systems
DESCRIPTION:MAE Seminar: From Sequence to Function: Engineering Molecular D
 evices for Monitoring Living Systems\nDate: September 8\, 2026\nTime: 12:5
 0 PM Location: MAE-A 303\nDr. Jing Pan\nAssistant Professor\nDepartment of
  Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering\nUniversity of Florida\nAbstract\nBi
 omolecules are traditionally viewed as biology's information carriers\, bu
 t they are fundamentally nanoscale physical systems that encode mechanical
  and chemical functions. This duality makes them a uniquely programmable e
 ngineering substrate. Advances in molecular synthesis\, sequencing\, and d
 esign now let us write sequence-level rules that specify structure\, kinet
 ics\, and dynamics. This enables a new engineering paradigm of building fu
 nctional molecular machines for applications spanning basic biomedical res
 earch\, healthcare\, and national defense. In this talk\, I will present o
 ur research platform for developing functional biomolecular nanosystems. F
 irst\, I will discuss AI-assisted protein design and next-generation seque
 ncing (NGS)-based high-throughput screening for developing molecular binde
 rs. These biorecognition elements serve as basic building blocks for compl
 ex molecular systems. Second\, I will present our recent work leveraging m
 olecular thermodynamics\, microscale heat and mass transport\, and rationa
 l sequence design to develop a suite of tools for continuous biosensing. I
  will highlight photothermal recycling\, an approach that addresses the sp
 eed-sensitivity trade-off in biosensing by thermally driving biomolecular 
 binders in situ to enable continuous monitoring in biological systems wher
 e conventional sensors saturate or foul. Finally\, I will introduce our cu
 rrent work integrating these molecular tools into microphysiological syste
 ms to close the loop between biosensing\, tissue dynamics\, and biological
  control\, with applications in real-time clinical monitoring\, biomanufac
 turing process analytics\, and high-fidelity human-on-a-chip models. Toget
 her\, this work advances the engineering science of molecular machines tha
 t continuously interface with living systems.\nBiography\nJing Pan is an a
 ssistant professor in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the Universi
 ty of Florida. He received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Purdue
  University\, where he worked on engineering DNA-based molecular motors. H
 e completed his postdoctoral training at Stanford University\, designing D
 NA molecular switches for biomedical applications. His lab at UF engineers
  biomolecules as nanoscale machines\, with a focus on continuous biochemic
 al sensing for healthcare and life science research. He is the recipient o
 f the NSF CAREER Award\, the NIGMS MIRA Award\, the NIBIB R21 Trailblazer 
 Award\, and the ASME Rising Star in Mechanical Engineering Award.\nFaculty
  Host: Dr. Hugh Fan
CATEGORIES:Seminars
LOCATION:MAE-A Room 303\, 939 Sweetwater Drive\, Gainesville\, FL\, 32611\,
  United States
GEO:29.643814;-82.34865
X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=939 Sweetwater Drive\, Gain
 esville\, FL\, 32611\, United States;X-APPLE-RADIUS=100;X-TITLE=MAE-A Room
  303:geo:29.643814,-82.34865
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VTIMEZONE
TZID:America/New_York
X-LIC-LOCATION:America/New_York
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
DTSTART:20260308T030000
TZOFFSETFROM:-0500
TZOFFSETTO:-0400
TZNAME:EDT
END:DAYLIGHT
END:VTIMEZONE
END:VCALENDAR