Future Seminars
Seminar Colour Guide:
| External Faculty Speaker | Thursday, 27 July 2017, 10:00Transcriptomic deconvolution of heterogeneous tumor samples Wenyi Wang, The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, USAHost: Jan KorbelSmall Operon, EMBL Heidelberg Abstract: Tumor tissue samples are comprised of a mixture of cancerous and surrounding stromal cells. Understanding tumor heterogeneity is crucial to analyzing gene signatures associated with cancer prognosis and treatment decisions. Compared with the experimental approach of laser capture micro-dissection to isolate different tissue components, in silico dissection of mixed cell samples is faster and cheaper. Numerous computational approaches previously developed all have their limitations to deconvolute heterogeneous tumor samples. In this talk, I will present a new three-component deconvolution model, DeMixT, that can account for the immune cell compartment explicitly and is able to address the challenging problem when the observed signals are assumed to come from a mixture of three cell compartments, infiltrated immune cells, tumor microenvironment and cancerous tissues. |
| External Faculty Speaker | |
| External Faculty Speaker | |
| External Faculty Speaker | |
| Seminar given by an external postdoc | |
| EMBL Distinguished Visitor Lecture | Thursday, 14 September 2017, 11:00To be announcedGene Myers, MPI-CBG, Dresden, GermanyHost: Stefano De RenzisThe Operon, EMBL Heidelberg |
| Science and Society | Monday, 18 September 2017, 15:00The Ethics of Biomedical Big Data: Between individual and public health interestsBrent Mittelstadt, University of Oxford, United KingdomHost: Halldór StefánssonLarge Operon, EMBL Heidelberg |
| Seminar given by an external postdoc | |
| EMBL Distinguished Visitor Lecture | Monday, 9 October 2017, 11:00Autoimmune priming, tissue attack and chronic inflammation the three stages of an autoimmune disease like rheumatoid arthritisRikard Holmdahl, Karolinska Institute, SwedenHost: Janosch HennigThe Operon, EMBL Heidelberg Abstract: Extensive genome wide association studies have recently shed some light on the causes of chronic autoimmune diseases and have confirmed a central role of the adaptive immune system. Moreover, better diagnostics using disease-associated autoantibodies have been developed, and treatment has improved through the development of biologicals with precise molecular targets.Here, I will discuss rheumatoid arthritis (RA) as a prototype for chronic autoimmune disease to propose that the pathogenesis of autoimmune diseases could be divided into three discrete stages. First, yet unknown environmental challenges seem to activate innate immunity thereby providing an adjuvant signal for the induction of adaptive immune responses that lead to the production of autoantibodies and determine the subsequent disease development. Second, a joint-specific inflammatory reaction occurs. This inflammatory reaction might be clinically diagnosed as the earliest signs of the disease. Third, inflammation is converted to a chronic process leading to tissue destruction and remodeling. I will discuss the stages involved in RA pathogenesis and the experimental approaches, mainly involving animal models that can be used to investigate each disease stage. In particular I will focus on the tissue attack and how this could be prevented. Although the focus is on RA, it is likely that a similar stepwise development of disease also occurs in other chronic autoimmune settings such as multiple sclerosis (MS), type 1 diabetes (T1D) and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). |
| External Faculty Speaker | |
| EMBL Distinguished Visitor Lecture | Thursday, 9 November 2017, 11:00To be announcedBing Ren, University of California, USAHost: Jan KorbelThe Operon, EMBL Heidelberg |
| EMBL Distinguished Visitor Lecture | Wednesday, 15 November 2017, 11:00To be announcedDavid Baker, University of Washington, USAHost: Janosch HennigThe Operon, EMBL Heidelberg |
| Science and Society | Thursday, 23 November 2017, 15:00Molecular gastronomy: questions of scientific strategy and applicationsHervé This, International Centre for Molecular Gastronomy AgroParisTech-INRA, FranceHost: Halldór StefánssonLarge Operon, EMBL Heidelberg Abstract: Molecular gastronomy is the scientific discipline that looks for the mechanisms of phenomena occurring during food preparation. It was created (formally in 1988) because it was realized that a wealth of original phenomena were neglected by physical chemistry, so that possibilities of discoveries were many. It develops in many countries of the world (and should not be confused with cooking, and in particular with "molecular cooking" or "molecular cuisine", which are applications).How to make discoveries? This question is of course not restricted to molecular gastronomy, but some examples of results can show various ways of getting scientific results, the most important being probably the set up of new observation tools, or the idea that "Any result should be considered as a "projection" of general cases that we have to invent". Concerning applications, the latest is called "note by note cooking", and it is the exact equivalent of synthetic music, a reason why it could also be called synthetic cooking. The definition is simply: make food from pure compounds, instead of tradition food ingredients (vegetables, meats, fruits, fishs, eggs...). This culinary trend is spreading today. |
| Science and Society | Monday, 4 December 2017, 15:00Improbable Research and the Ig Nobel PrizesMarc Abrahams, Ig Nobel Prize, USAHost: Halldór StefánssonThe Operon, EMBL Heidelberg |