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.

Normalizing Struggle: Effective Mentoring for Doctoral Students

Sponsored by WISE Ventures, Office of Faculty Development, Office of the Vice Provost for Graduate Education, and Bio-X.

JULIE POSSELT, UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

This WISE Research Roundtable is one in a series of discussions with those whose research illuminates paths to advance equity in scientific and technical fields.

Faculty mentoring is a durable structure within doctoral education that facilitates intellectual growth, professional socialization, and progressive independence. This presentation will share findings from research focused on PhD students from marginalized backgrounds in science and engineering programs that, though located in top research universities, enrolled significantly higher shares of women or students of color than are found on average in those disciplines. Posselt finds clear patterns in how students conceptualize faculty support, associated with specific mentoring tactics that contributed to their persistence and well-being.

Stanford Bio-X Frontiers in Interdisciplinary Biosciences Pre-Seminar

R&D Career Panel: Industry Insights & Scientific Careers Path in Biotech

Join us for a career panel which will include 4 industry scientists.

Stanford Bio-X Frontiers in Interdisciplinary Biosciences Pre-Seminar

JIAN QIN, DEPARTMENT OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING

Attend Dr. Qin's pre-seminar presentation virtually via Zoom to learn more about Dr. Arup Chakraborty's seminar, "How to Hit Highly Mutable Pathogens Where It Hurts", to be held Thursday, April 30th.

Please note:

This and other Stanford Bio-X seminars and events will be conducted virtually over Zoom. Please join the meeting with the information LIsted and mute your computer's audio if needed. You will need to be signed in to a Zoom account to join.

CANCELED: Stanford bio-X Frontiers in Interdisciplinary Biosciences Seminar

A video recording of a similar talk from Dr. Arup Chakraborty is available online here.