Tiernan Kennedy

University of Washington, Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science and Engineering

About Me

I use DNA nanotechnology and molecular programming to develop the next generation of biosensors, diagnostics, and nanofabrication tools

After completing my undergraduate education at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, studying chemistry, math, and interdisscplinary biomedecine I headed to the University of Washington to cotinue my training as a computer scientist with Chris Thachuk. As an undegraduate researcher working in the Thompson Lab using structural DNA nanotechnology to study protein biophysics, and in the Rothemund Lab using DNA-liquid condensates to study emergent biological complexity, I fell in love the with computational power underlying biology. Today I'm combining my background in biochemical laboratory research with the robust computational principles developed to engineer biomolecular circuits and devices with new levels of complexity biological. In the future, I imagine a world where molecular programming and control bring our current diagnostic, medical data storage, and biomanufacturing pipeliness to the test-tube.

Current Projects

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Molecular Computing Components and Architecture

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Molecular Cryptography for Medecine

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Publications

Fast and Robust Strand Displacement Cascades via Systematic Design Strategies
Awarded 'Best Student Paper' at the 28th International Conference on DNA Computing and Molecular Programming (2022)

Outreach