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There is now a CONTENT FREEZE for Mercury while we switch to a new platform. It began on Friday, March 10 at 6pm and will end on Wednesday, March 15 at noon. No new content can be created during this time, but all material in the system as of the beginning of the freeze will be migrated to the new platform, including users and groups. Functionally the new site is identical to the old one. webteam@gatech.edu
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Monday, September 21, 2015
Klaus 1116 W - 1:00 pm
(Refreshments will be served in Klaus 2222 at 2 pm)
Title:
Strings, Trees, and RNA Folding
Abstract:
An RNA molecule is a linear biochemical chain which folds into a three dimensional structure via a set of 2D base pairings known as a nested secondary structure. Reliably determining a secondary structure for large RNA molecules, such as the genomes of most viruses, is an important open problem in molecular biology. Using strings and (plane) trees as a combinatorial model of RNA folding, we give mathematical results which yield insights into RNA branching configurations and suggest new directions in understanding the structure of RNA viruses. We also demonstrate that, under a suitable abstraction, complex biological problems can reveal surprising mathematical structure.
