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<span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:150%; font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><img width="600" height="171" id="x_Picture_x0020_3" alt="Dissertation Defense Announcement at the Cullen College of Engineering" style="width:6.25in; height:1.7812in" data-outlook-trace="F:1|T:1" src="cid:image005.jpg@01D845D5.17B10F60"></span><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:150%; font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"></span></p>
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<b><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; color: red;">The Roles of Rainwater, Electric Field, and Polymer Charge Density in the Formation and Organization of Coacervate Protocells</span></b></p>
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<b><span style="font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; color: black;">Aman Agrawal</span></b><b><span style="font-size:13.5pt; line-height:150%; font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"></span></b></p>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; color: black;">September 6, 2023; 12:00 Noon</span><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"></span></p>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; color: black;"><br>
<b>Room: </b>Agrawal Building, AERB 320</span></p>
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<span style="color: black;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; color: black;">MS TEAMS: <a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19*3ameeting_MDFlOTI2NTMtZDVjYy00Y2U5LWJiY2YtYzkxOTIwM2MzYzc1*40thread.v2/0?context=*7b*22Tid*22*3a*22170bbabd-a2f0-4c90-ad4b-0e8f0f0c4259*22*2c*22Oid*22*3a*229a68cf44-744e-46c1-b1fd-8a7ecad722f6*22*7d__;JSUlJSUlJSUlJSUlJSUl!!LkSTlj0I!Fr1wYXMQADxhFHBQ454lgdkN9kFQCh2PPi67YA53Eks7C2Cx5yxQIKJ01wnlefDypF3sMUawVMobGZg8y-AeHrTkbj4$" data-auth="NotApplicable" id="OWA361c1a67-e214-9648-b936-7c4332ede40d" class="OWAAutoLink"><span style="color: blue;">Click
here to join the meeting</span></a></span><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"></span></p>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; color: black;"> Meeting ID: 254 327 422 502 </span><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"></span></p>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; color: black;"> Passcode: kN87hx </span><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"></span></p>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; color: black;">Committee Chair:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; color: black;"><br>
Alamgir Karim, PhD</span><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"></span></p>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; color: black;">Committee Members:</span></b><b><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"></span></b></p>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; color: black;">Jacinta Conrad, Ph.D.
<b>| </b>Peter Vekilov, Ph.D. <b>|</b> Jack Douglas, Ph.D. <b>| </b></span></p>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; color: black;">Christine Keating, Ph.D.<b> |
</b>Sarah Perry, Ph.D<b></b></span></p>
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<b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; color: rgb(200, 16, 46);">Abstract</span></b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; color: rgb(200, 16, 46);"></span></p>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; color: black;">The compartmentalization of RNA is an essential aspect of protocells for Darwinian evolution in the context of the origin of life. Membraneless coacervate droplets, such as those formed by polycation
and nucleotide, have long been proposed as model protocells due to their excellent ability to concentrate RNA by natural partitioning without any transport barrier. However, the high rate of exchange of RNA between these membraneless protocells, along with
their rapid fusion with each other, have proven them ineffective for any functional spatiotemporal compartmentalization. Furthermore, there is a lot of interest in manipulating colloidal particles using external fields, but the research has mostly been limited
to solid particles. It is becoming apparent that manipulating liquid droplets at the microscale using external fields could be useful in forming 3D assemblies without changing the density of the solvent that is required for solid particles. However, recent
research showed that coacervates are unstable under external fields and tend to vacuolate and explode.</span></p>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; color: black;"> In this thesis, we show experimentally how coacervate droplets can be stabilized against coalescence by sheering them in distilled water. We found that the droplets gain interfacial
elasticity, possibly due to the formation of ionic crosslinks as a consequence of the ejection of interfacial counterions. We hypothesized that rainwater, which is essentially distilled water, could have helped the formation of crosslinks on the interface
of coacervate droplets that not only suppress their fusion but also allow small RNA oligonucleotides (6-8 nt) to exchange at a short timescale while keeping the longer ones (35-nt or higher) compartmentalized for days. Such a size-based trafficking genetic
material could have formed the basis of chemical communication between evolving protocells.</span></p>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; color: black;"> Next, using these stable droplets, we showed that we can precisely control the positions of individual droplets and arrays of them with relatively low-voltage electric fields (on
the order of 10 V/cm) and that the imposition of an oscillatory field gives rise to chain formation with coarsening of these chains into long fibers. Such a phase–separation–like process is generally observed in electrorheological fluids of solid colloidal
particles subjected to much larger field strengths. Since many different molecular payloads can be incorporated into these stable droplets, we anticipate many applications.</span></p>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; color: black;"> Finally, we showed how multi-compartment coacervate protocells can be made using polymers of different charge densities. By synthesizing polyelectrolyte chains with a varying fraction
of charged to uncharged monomers, we studied multicomponent phase separation of a homologous series of polyelectrolytes to understand the nuances of multiphase separation.</span><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:150%; font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><img border="0" width="600" height="82" id="x_Picture_x0020_4" alt="Engineered For What's Next" style="width:6.25in; height:.8541in" data-outlook-trace="F:1|T:1" src="cid:image006.jpg@01D845D5.17B10F60"></span><span style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"></span></p>
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