Future Seminars
Seminar Colour Guide:
| External Faculty Speaker | |
| External Faculty Speaker | Thursday, 5 September 2019, 11:00X-ray holography to image dense neural networks in large tissue volumesAlexandra Pacureanu, The European Synchrotron, University College London and The Francis Crick Institute, FranceHost: Yannick SchwabSmall Operon, EMBL Heidelberg Abstract: Function of the nervous system emerges from interactions between cells forming densely intertwined, connected structures. Since visualizing neurites requires nanometer scale resolution and each neural circuit can span over millimeters of tissue volumes, exploring and understanding the inner workings of neural networks remains a highly challenging and costly endeavor. Today, the largest brain imaged entirely with sufficient spatial resolution corresponds to a fruit fly and this is the result of an exceptional effort. Electron microscopy is the only technique offering the necessary resolving power but covering large volumes requires ultrathin sectioning followed by imaging, alignment and stitching of millions of images.High energy X-rays have sub-nanometer wavelength and high penetration power, making them an attractive illumination probe for nanometer imaging of millimeter thick samples. In practice, the spatial resolution has been limited to micrometer level and the X-ray attenuation contrast for soft biological tissues is very weak. I will present an X-ray phase contrast technique, called holography, which enables imaging with exceptional spatial resolution and contrast by using a highly focused and coherent beam. By combining X-ray holography with cryogenic imaging and tomographic reconstruction, we have obtained 3D images of both Drosophila and mouse neural tissue of adequate quality for tracing dense neuronal morphologies in mm sized volumes. Furthermore, we have adapted a 3D U-NET convolutional neural network to accelerate tracing through automatic segmentation. I will discuss future perspective of using X-ray imaging to explore neural tissue and the research avenues opened by this approach. |
| External Faculty Speaker | |
| Science and Society | Thursday, 12 September 2019, 14:00Ethics Dumping How to avoid 21st century exploitation in research Abstract: Never before has so much research been undertaken globally. The mobility of researchers is seen as a must in career trajectories today. Whilst this international outlook on research has produced many benefits for humankind, it has also led to a new phenomenon of exploitation: ethics dumping; the export of unethical practices from high-income settings to countries with less restrictive regulatory regimes.Doris Schroeder, Centre for Professional Ethics, UCLan UK and Law School, UCLan Cyprus, United KingdomHost: Halldór StefánssonThe Operon, EMBL Heidelberg This presentation will explain what ethics dumping is, present concrete cases and most importantly explain how it can be avoided. It will introduce the Global Code of Conduct for Research in Resource-Poor Settings, which is now mandatory for EU-funding involving low- or middle-income countries. The code is based on an innovative moral framework around fairness, respect, care and honesty, which was built by a global group from all continents, importantly involving representatives of vulnerable populations (sex workers from Nairobi and indigenous peoples from the Kalahari). |
| Science and Society | CANCELLED - Monday, 16 September 2019, 15:00Herding Scientists - A Problem or A Solution?Michelle Baddeley, University of South Australia, AustraliaHost: Halldór StefánssonLarge Operon, EMBL Heidelberg |
| EMBL Distinguished Visitor Lecture | Tuesday, 17 September 2019, 11:00Organizing behavior across timescalesCornelia Isabella Bargmann, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, The Rockefeller University, Lulu and Anthony Wang Laboratory of Neural Circuits and Behavior, , USAHost: Christine HoLarge Operon, EMBL Heidelberg Abstract: Genes, neurons, and circuits encode information, interpret it based on context and motivational states, and use that combined input to drive flexible behaviors. Understanding how these processes propagate across temporal and spatial scales is daunting in the complex human brain, but more straightforward in the simple brain of the nematode C. elegans. Our studies of C. elegans foraging behaviors have provided insights into three levels of behavioral regulation: the gating of information flow by circuit state over seconds, the extrasynaptic regulation of circuits by neuropeptides and neuromodulators over minutes and hours, and innate programs that modify behavior across development. The last few minutes of the talk will be about supporting technology and collaboration in science as a way to accelerate scientific progress. |
| EMBL Distinguished Visitor Lecture | Thursday, 26 September 2019, 11:00THE MOLECULAR MACHINERY OF INTRACELLULAR PROTEIN DEGRADATION: STRUCTURAL STUDIES EX SITU AND IN SITUWolfgang Baumeister, Max Planc Institute of Biochemistry, GermanyHost: Julia Mahamid, Martin BeckLarge Operon, EMBL Heidelberg Abstract: The 26S proteasome operates at the executive end of the ubiquitin-proteasome pathway for the controlled degradation of intracellular proteins. The 2.5 MDa complex comprises two subcomplexes: the 20S core where proteolysis takes place and one or two regulatory particles which prepare substrates for degradation. Whereas the structure of its 20S core particle has been determined by X-ray crystallography more than two decades ago, the structure of the regulatory particle, which recruits substrates, unfolds them, and assists in their translocation into the core particle remained elusive for a long time. Only in recent years has its structure been determined to high resolution using cryo-electron microscopy single particle analysis. Cryo-electron tomography allows to perform structural studies of macromolecular and supramolecular structures in situ, i.e. in their functional cellular environments. We used this method to study the 26S proteasome in a number of cellular settings revealing their precise location, assembly and activity status as well as their interactions with other molecular players of the cellular degradation machinery. |
| External Faculty Speaker | |
| External Faculty Speaker | |
| EMBL Distinguished Visitor Lecture | |
| Science and Society | Tuesday, 19 November 2019, 15:00Imaging human embryos: A history Nick Hopwood, University of Cambridge, United KingdomHost: Halldór StefánssonLarge Operon, EMBL Heidelberg |
| EMBL Distinguished Visitor Lecture | Thursday, 21 November 2019, 11:00To be announcedPascale Cossart, Pasteur Institute, FranceLarge Operon, EMBL Heidelberg |