Astera Institute

Designer

• Define the control-system requirements and constraints for the DNA Origami actuator–sensor system — sensor bandwidth, noise floor, and latency; actuator drive-signal range and dynamics; and end-to-end observability — and feed them into the device-physics and DNA-origami design decisions early.
• Review the field-effect (FET) position-sensor and electrostatic drive-stack designs through a controls lens, flagging choices that would make the system hard to stabilize, identify, or estimate.
• Specify what the early ensemble and single-molecule experiments must log (sampling, excitation, metadata) so the data is usable for later system identification and ML modeling of the device response.
• Sketch the closed-loop control architecture and a simulation/estimation plan (feedback stabilization, averaging, observers) that the incoming full-time Controls engineer will implement.
• Provide a clean, documented handoff to the team.

Controls & Systems – Design Consultant

Consultant

• Model electrostatic actuation — how an applied field drives the charged DNA-origami plate through an ionic solution and into a polymer cushion — using appropriate methods (e.g., Poisson–Boltzmann, explicit-ion molecular dynamics, or continuum modeling) to predict the device's voltage–displacement and force behavior.
• Model the actuator's nanomechanics: the stiffness and mechanical modes of the plate, force transmitter, and amplifying linkage, and the coupled electro-mechanical response.
• Predict single-molecule fluorescence (FRET) distances, expected structural geometry (for cryo-EM comparison), operational force-distance-voltage surfaces, and surface-attachment energetics, giving the experimental team a quantitative theoretical baseline.
• Deliver prediction-versus-measurement comparison reports that flag where the device diverges from theory and guide the next design iteration.

Computational Chemistry – Theory Consultant

• Design site-specific attachment chemistry (e.g., photochemical or click approaches) to anchor the DNA-origami structure to the device surface with controlled coverage and orientation.
• Advise on functionalization of the dielectric and polymer surfaces in the device stack.
• Develop these approaches into a laboratory standardized protocol for implementation by others.
• Troubleshoot attachment yield and orientation with the wet-lab team, and recommend methods to characterize anchor quality.

Bioconjugate and Surface Chemistry Consultant

Research Scientist

• Read, analyze, and synthesize neuroscience, cognitive science, and computational neuroscience literature.
• Develop biologically plausible computational models of neural circuits, brain regions, and large-scale brain systems.
• Compare model predictions with experimental data and refine models accordingly.
• Propose and pursue original research directions that advance our understanding of brain computation.
• Document research findings and communicate results through technical reports, publications, and presentations.

Controls & Systems – Design Consultant

Computational Chemistry – Theory Consultant

Bioconjugate and Surface Chemistry Consultant

Research Scientist – Computational Neuroscience