Tuesday 9 June 2009 , at 18:00, we are honoured to host at the CRI Prof. Eshel Ben Jacob, of the Physics department, Tel-Aviv University, presenting his work on "Learning from bacteria about information processing"
Prof. Ben Jacob is the holder of the Maguy-Glass Chair in Physics of Complex Systems, fellow of the American Physical Society and former President of the Israel Physical Society. Scientific American magazine placed his work on the creation of a type of organic memory chip on its list of the year's 50 most significant scientific discoveries...
Abstract
Bacteria, the first and most fundamental of all organisms, lead rich social life in complex hierarchical communities. Collectively, they gather information from the environment, learn from past experience, and take decisions. Bacteria do not store genetically all the information required for efficient responding to all possible environmental conditions. To solve the new encountered problems (challenges) posed by the environment, they first asses the problem via collective sensing, recall stored information of past experience and then execute distributed information processing of the 109-12 bacteria in the colony thus turning the colony into super-brain. Super-brain, because the billions of bacteria in the colony use sophisticated communication strategies to link the intracellular computation networks of each bacterium (including signaling path ways of billions of molecules) into a network of networks. I will then show illuminating movies of swarming intelligence of live bacteria in which they solve optimization problems that are beyond what we, human being, can solve with our most powerful computers. This will lead me to a discussion about the special nature of bacteria computational principles in comparison to our Turing Algorithm computational principles. If time will permit, I will show that we can learn from the bacteria about our brain. In particular that the crucial role of the neglected other side of the brain - distributed information processing of the astrocytes.
next : recent publications
Not to be missed!
This Friday, 22 May 2009 at 17:00, the Interdisciplinary Fridays will host Prof. John P.A. Ioannidis, MD, PhD. John (see resume below), an MD, is a leader epidemiologist, statistician, an excellent orator...
To have a taste of his works spanning meta-analysis of genomic and medical data to evaluation of research in general and as proof of the direct interest each of us should have in hearing his talk and discussing with him over a glass of wine, have a look at the following article:
Why most published research findings are false.
Ioannidis JP.
PLoS Med. 2005 Aug;2(8):e124. Epub 2005 Aug 30.
Next : Ioannidis profile
This Friday 25 April 2009 at 14:00, we will host Dr. Shai Kaplan (Weizmann Institute, Israel) who will share with us his work on:
Diverse input-functions control bacterial genes
Abstract
Cells respond to environmental signals by adjusting the expression level of their genes. The relation between the level of the input signals and the transcription rate of the gene is called the gene input-function. The input-functions of most genes are currently unknown. Here, we use robotic assay of measurements in living cells to map the input-functions of about 20 E. coli sugar genes at high resolution and accuracy. We find diverse, intricately shaped input-functions, including non-monotonic functions that peak at intermediate signal levels. We find that most of the input-functions show separation of variables, in the sense that they can be described as the product of simple functions that depend only on a single input. This study provides the first broad survey of gene input-functions and can be extended to map the logic of gene regulation in other systems and organisms.
This reflects Shai's PhD work in the labs of Uri Alon and Ehud Shapiro.
You may want to look at some of his PhD papers (below)
Hope you'll all join us for this exciting talk!
The incoherent feed-forward loop can generate non-monotonic input functions for genes.
Kaplan S, Bren A, Dekel E, Alon U.
Mol Syst Biol. 2008;4:203. Epub 2008 Jul 15.
Diverse two-dimensional input functions control bacterial sugar genes.
Kaplan S, Bren A, Zaslaver A, Dekel E, Alon U.
Mol Cell. 2008 Mar 28;29(6):786-92.
De novo DNA synthesis using single molecule PCR.
Ben Yehezkel T, Linshiz G, Buaron H, Kaplan S, Shabi U, Shapiro E.
Nucleic Acids Res. 2008 Oct;36(17):e107. Epub 2008 Jul 30.
Recursive construction of perfect DNA molecules from imperfect oligonucleotides.
Linshiz G, Yehezkel TB, Kaplan S, Gronau I, Ravid S, Adar R, Shapiro E.
Mol Syst Biol. 2008;4:191. Epub 2008 May 6.
PMID: 18463615 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
A universal mechanism ties genotype to phenotype in trinucleotide diseases.
Kaplan S, Itzkovitz S, Shapiro E.
PLoS Comput Biol. 2007 Nov;3(11):e235. Epub 2007 Oct 16.
For fans of nano applications in Life Sciences,
On Friday 20 March 2009 at 10:00 at the CRI, Dr. Tomaso Zambelli of the ETH, Zurich will give a talk on:
fluidFM: combining AFM and nanofluidics for single cell experiments demonstrated applications include direct injection to neuronal axons without cellular damage (see attached poster), many other applications can be dreamed of and will be discussed in the seminar.
You're all invited to join!
This Friday February 6, 2009 we have the great pleasure to host Prof. Matthew Meselson, Harvard. Matt gained his fame by what is often referred to as 'the most elegant experiment in Biology', describing how DNA replication works in a semi-conservative manner ('the Meselson Stahl experiment'). This was followed by a brilliant career (see below) both in research and in teaching, in true legacy of his PhD supervisor, Linus Pauling. Matt, close to eighty years old, continues relentlessly his bench work (see Science publications in the past year) and has been doing so here in Paris for the last few weeks. He agreed to make a pause to present some of his recent work, as he has enjoyed the interaction with AIV students in the past and plans to visit our program on regular basis ;)
Apart from his scientific endavours, Meselson' has been deeply involved in chemical and biological defense and arms control and has served as a presidential consultant and a key Pugwash actor.
In brief... don't miss !
Ariel Lindner
Read more in the Harvard's Gazette:
http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2004/09.30/01-meselson.html
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December 7-9, 2009, Paris, FRANCE Official web site Quick links : new! Photos program speakers location (Amphi Buffon) |
From sparse entities... to crowded environments : numbers in living systems
The symposium is organized as an opportunity to meet new people from diverse fields with a common interest in life sciences, sharing ideas and changing one's own point of view on different issues.
We are interested in hearing your opinion during round tables, open discussions and on our blog! No matter what your background is, join us in December to discuss about numbers in biology!
Please consult the official web site for additional information and registration.
This symposium is organized by PhD students from the "Frontiers in Life Sciences" graduate school. This graduate school is built on the idea that exchanging ideas fosters scientific research. It gathers Ph.D. students from different disciplines working on diverse scientific projects allowing them to meet regularly so that they can share methods, ideas and confront their points of view. Our aim is to organize this symposium to bring together researchers and Ph.D. students motivated by the same spirit.
Contact:
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Sponsors
This initiative is funded by the Fondation Bettencourt Schueller and hosted by Université Paris Diderot.
Other partners kindly provide support for attendees travel grants.
Please find below the list of our sponsors:
Fondation Bettencourt-Schueller
Université Paris Diderot
Mairie de Paris
Fondation Pierre Gilles de Gennes
INRA
INRA - Departement de Génétique et Amélioration des Plantes
Institut Jacques Monod
The BacteriO'Clock - Equipe iGEM Paris - Rapport 2008
Vous trouverez ci-après une synthèse des travaux de l'équipe iGEM Paris qui a remporté cette année la médaille de bronze au concours international de biologie synthétique iGEM ("International Genetically Engineered Machine"), manifestation qui se déroule chaque année au Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT, Cambridge, Etats Unis).
Comme en témoignent les étudiants participants, iGEM est avant tout un programme pédagogique sans équivalent. Il permet en effet à de jeunes étudiants, pour certains inexpérimentés, d'apprendre à monter un labo, construire un projet, le développer en mode collaboratif et interdisciplinaire, avant de le présenter en public dans le cadre d'une compétition opposant plus de 80 équipes issues des meilleures universités mondiales ! +
télécharger : rapport iGEM Paris 2008 (pdf)
Pour plus d'infos :
contact Ariel Lindner / Samuel Bottani
Centre de Recherches Interdisciplinaires
tél + 33 1 44 41 22 69
mail :
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Pablo Jensen, a physicist from the ENS Lyon, will give us a conference at the CRI on thursday 25th september, 10 AM in the seminar room (2017 - 2nd floor) about :
Science communication, interdisciplinarity and research performance
Pablo is interested in the analysis and modeling of social systems and is also involved in science communication (he already wrote two books) and in teaching (he is launching an interdisciplinary master 2 this year at the frontier between physics, maths & computer sciences).
His last paper published this summer shows that scientists involved in dissemination activities like science mediation or teaching perform better academically, some very good news for most of us!
This work is a beautiful example of the joint power of a simple yet highly socially relevant question and of the availability of extensive data on the web.
Pablo will present this work and the new interdisciplinary master and we will then discuss on these topics.
More about Pablo:
http://perso.ens-lyon.fr/pablo.jensen/
His paper on research performance and dissemination activities:
http://perso.ens-lyon.fr/pablo.jensen/revised.pdf
During the cycle of conferences in Paris of William C. Wimsatt, a philosopher from the university of Chicago, we will host him at the CRI for a colloquium dedicated to evolution of culture.
Evolution of writing : a model for culture evolution ?
Date: Tuesday 17 june 2008
Time: 10:00 - 17:00
Schedule
** Theoretical insights into culture evolution **
10.00 William C. Wimsatt (title to be announced)
Discussion
11.15 To be announced
Discussion
12.30 Lunch
** From theory to experiments : the evolution of writing **
14.00 Marc Smith: "Morphology" and "ductus": visual and mechanical factors in the evolution of latin alphabet
Discussion
15.00 Stanislas Dehaene: Cultural evolution and neuronal recycling : the example of reading
Discussion
16.00 Julien Bénard-Capelle: What can we learm from experimental propagation of symbols ?
Discussion
17.00 Conclusions