Stanford Bio-X Seminar

David Veesler, Assistant Professor of Biochemistry, University of Washington

Hosted by: Dr. Georgios Skiniotis, Professor of Molecular & Cellular Physiology, Structural Biology, and Photon Science, Stanford University

Coronavirus spike (S) glycoprotein trimers promote entry into cells and are the main targets of the humoral immune response. We demonstrated that ACE2 is a functional entry receptor for this novel coronavirus and that the receptorbinding domains of SARS-CoV-2 S and SARS-CoV S bind with similar affinities to ACE2, which correlates with the efficient spread of SARS-CoV-2 among humans.

Stanford Bio-X Frontiers in Interdisciplinary Biosciences Pre-Seminar - "Bio-X: A Historical Perspective"

CHANNING ROBERTSON, DEPARTMENT OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING

Virtually atend Dr. Robertson's pre-seminar presentation to learn more about the history of Stanford Bio-X.

Frontiers in Quantitative Biology Seminar

CASSANDRA EXTAVOUR, HARVARD UNIVERSITY

The Extavour Lab is a collection of developmental biologists, molecular biologists, geneticists, cell biologists, zoologists, and evolutionary biologists. Their shared interest is in the evolution of the genetic mechanisms employed during early animal embryogenesis to specify cell fate, development and differentiation. They focus primarily on the evolution and development of reproductive systems, including both the germ line and the somatic components of the gonad.

Frontiers in Quantitative Biology Seminar

JOSHUA RABINOWITZ, PRINCETON UNIVERSITY

The Rabinowitz Lab aims to achieve a quantitative, comprehensive understanding of cellular metabolism. Their motivation for studying metabolism is two-fold. From a basic science perspective, the molecular connections involved in metabolism are the best understood of any major biochemical network. Accordingly, metabolism provides a unique opportunity for quantitative analysis. From a practical perspective, derangements of metabolism are a major cause of disease, and small molecules that inhibit metabolism are the basis of many important pharmaceuticals. Accordingly, systems-level analysis of metabolism is likely to yield discoveries of medical significance.

Frontiers in Quantitative Biology Seminar

ALLON KLEIN, HARVARD UNIVERSITY

The Klein Lab studies how cells make decisions during embryo development and tissue regeneration. They utilize the lung, the blood, and early vertebrate embryos as our model systems. To gain a quantitative understanding of cellular decisions, they develop experimental and statistical approaches to measure cellular and tissue phenotypes. They additionally use theoretical approaches to infer principles from quantitative phenotypes.

Frontiers in Quantitative Biology Seminar

HARRIS WANG, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

The Wang lab applies synthetic and systems biology approaches to design and build new microbes with novel capabilities, leveraging both engineering and evolutionary principles. They are interested in developing platform technologies and using them to answer fundamental biological questions. Their research interests include: genome engineering; human microbiome; synthetic ecosystems; evolution and epistasis; and new genetic codes.

Frontiers in Quantitative Biology Seminar

SOPHIE HELAINE, HARVARD UNIVERSITY

Salmonella is the causative agent of various diseases, ranging from gastro-enteritis to typhoid fever. We have recently discovered that upon infection of host cells, there is a dramatic increase in the proportion of the Salmonella population that forms persisters. A family of genes, named Toxin/Antitoxin modules, is known to be involved in the formation of persisters in a non-pathogenic bacterial species, but almost nothing is known about these genes in pathogenic bacteria like Salmonella. The Helaine lab investigates their function, particularly in relation to persistence of Salmonellato antibiotics during infection. Understanding mechanisms of action of such genes could provide ways to prevent bacteria from becoming persisters, or force them out of that state so they become re-sensitised to antibiotics.

Frontiers in Quantitative Biology Seminar

ANNA-KATERINA HADJANTONAKIS, MEMORIAL SLOAN KETTERING CANCER CENTER

Cancer is a condition promoted by cells undergoing an identity crisis. An understanding of how cells control their identity (cell fate specification), and how they organize themselves into normal tissues (morphogenesis) provides the blueprint for the fundamental biological processes that become deregulated in cancer. The Hadjantonakis laboratory uses high-resolution quantitative methods to investigate the mechanisms underlying stem cell specification, cellular differentiation, tissue organization and growth. They use the mammalian embryo as a platform, and the mouse as a primary model system. They also exploit in vitro cultured stem cells, including pluripotent stem cells, for their studies.

Frontiers in Quantitative Biology Seminar

NICOLE KING, UC BERKELEY

The origin of animals represents one of the pivotal transitions in life’s history, and one of its greatest unsolved mysteries. While the fossil record remains silent regarding the rise of multicellularity, the genetic and developmental foundations of animal origins may be deduced from shared elements among extant animals and their protozoan relatives, the choanoflagellates. To better understand the origin and evolution of animals, Dr. King's lab is reconstructing the minimal genomic complexity of the unicellular progenitors of animals; elucidating the ancestral functions of genes required for animal development; and characterizing choanoflagellate cell and developmental biology.

Frontiers in Quantitative Biology Seminar

FABIAN RUDOLF, ETH ZURICH

The Computational Systems Biology Group comprises biologists, computer scientists, engineers, and mathematicians who perform interdisciplinary research in systems and synthetic biology. They focus on developing and applying computational methods and mechanistic mathematical models to study complex cellular networks, to elucidate their operating principles, and to enable their rational re-design. Their biological applications rely on the group’s experimental biology part that uses budding yeast as a model organism, and on various external collaborations.