This innovative project, based at the University of California, Berkeley, involves a group of molecular biologists and mathematicians under the direction of Dr. Nicholas Cozzarelli. The major focus of this project is to attack various problems arising in the studies of DNA replication, supercoiling, protein folding, mapping of genes that underlie quantitative traits, and pattern recognition in protein sequences by using new mathematical methods from topology and geometry. The question of exactly how DNA replicates, folds and unfolds, and how geometric properties of large molecules are related to the sequences of amino acids are among the major unsolved problems of molecular biology. The use of new mathematical tools of differential geometry and knot invariants in the study of these problems should make an impact on both molecular biology and mathematics. There are two significant aspects of this project: to stimulate creative interactions between mathematicians and molecular biologists and to provide support for training and outreach on the interface of these two scientific fields. A major portion of the funding for this program will support graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, thus providing new young scientists trained in this area. Conferences and books are planned in order to disseminate new results of this research.
