Biography

Professor Seki holds a bachelor's and master's degree in engineering from the University of Electro-Communications in Tokyo, and pursued an international academic career with a doctorate in computer science from the University of Western Ontario, Canada. After completing his thesis, he carried out post-doctoral research in Canada and Finland. On his return to Japan, he joined the academic world to teach and share his expertise.

Collaboration with the LIP

For over ten years, a fruitful collaboration between the CNRS and the visiting professor has led to significant progress in the field of molecular computation, particularly around theoretical computational models and their experimental in-vitro implementation. During his three-year visiting professorship, this cooperation led to significant advances in the development of an RNA-based computing system.
Recent work has initiated the design of a system based on the Oritatami model, paving the way for effective implementation of computation at the molecular level. The next step will be to design simple, yet scalable, molecular programs to enable a gradual increase in complexity.

Major publications

• S. Z. Fazekas, N. Iwano, Y. Kihara, R. Matsuoka, S. Seki, and H. Takeuchi. Towards composable computations by RNA co-transcriptional folding: A proof-of-concept demonstration of nested loops in oritatami. Theor. Comput. Sci. 999 (2024) 114550.
• Y. Kihara and S. Seki. Programmable single-stranded architectures for computing. Nat. Comput. 22(3) (2023) 563-585.
• I. McQuillan and S. Seki (Eds.) Special issue: Unconventional Computation and Natural Computation (UCNC 2019), Nat. Comput. 20(2), 2021.
• S. Seki. Cotranscriptional Folding: A Frontier in Molecular Engineering -- A Challenge for Computer Scientists. SIAM News, May 01, 2017
• S. Seki. Patterned Self-Assembly Tile Set Synthesis. Encyclopedia of Algorithms, 1542-1545, Springer, 2016.
• L. Kari, S. Seki, and P. Sosik, DNA Computing: Foundations and Implications, in: G. Rozenberg, T. Back, J. Kok (Eds.), Handbook of Natural Computing, 1073-1127, Springer, 2012.