| Monday, January 30, 2012
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Noon - 1:00 PM
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Neuroscience, Aging, and Nutrition Lecture Series
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| Description: |
Please join us for the Special Lecture Series “Neuroscience, Aging, and Nutrition” co-sponsored by the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging (HNRCA) at Tufts University and the Tufts School of Medicine Neuroscience Department.
The third Lecture will be held on Monday, January 30, 2012 from 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. at the Auditorium of the Jean Mayer USDA HNRCA located at 711 Washington Street, Boston, MA. This is the third of six presentations in this special Lecture Series.
The “Neuroscience, Aging, and Nutrition Lecture Series” was created to celebrate the HNRCA’s new neuroscience and aging laboratory and to promote collaborations in the neuroscience research area.
Lecture #3: Dr. Giulio Maria Pasinetti, Director, Center of Excellence for Novel Approaches to Neurotherapeutics, Professor of Psychiatry, Neuroscience, Geriatrics and Adult Development, Department of Neurology and Friedman Brain Institute The Mount Sinai School of Medicine
Director, Basic and Biomedical Research and Training Program, GRECC , James J. Peters Veterans Affairs Medical Center.
“Of Sound Mind and Body: Dietary Lifestyles, Epigenetics, and Prevention of Brain Aging”
Host: Dr. Sarah Booth, Associate Director, HNRCA
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| Contact: |
Meghan Faherty
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4:00 PM - 5:00 PM
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| Tuesday, January 31, 2012
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Noon - 1:00 PM
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Investigations of Metalloenzymes Dynamics in Microbial Processes using Quantitative Proteomics
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| Description: |
Speaker: Mak Saito, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Location: The Forsyth Institute, Seminar Room A, 245 First St., 17th Fl., Cambridge
Abstract: Metalloenzymes play a critical role in cellular metabolism. Mass spectrometry based quantitative proteomics using multiple reaction monitoring is a relatively new technique that opens a window into the study of how microbes modify their metalloenzyme complement in response to changing environmental conditions. In addition, proteomic techniques can help determine the function of previously unannotated hypothetical proteins. Studies of marine diazotrophic cyanobacteria and heterotrophic bacteria will be discussed where each showed large scale changes in the metalloenzyme complement of the proteome for the purposes of iron conservation and proteolytic activity, respectively. In addition, identification of novel metalloproteins such as vitamin B12, cobalt, nickel and copper binding proteins will be discussed.
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| Contact: |
Pam Quattrocchi
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12:30 PM - 1:30 PM
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4:00 PM - 5:00 PM
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| Wednesday, February 1, 2012
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10:00 AM - 11:00 AM
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6:00 PM - 7:30 PM
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"A new angle on Angelman syndrome"
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| Description: |
Ben Philpot, Ph.D. Associate Professor, Department of Cell and Molecular Physiology, University of North Carolina
MIT Building 46-3002 (auditorium), followed by a reception
Building Address: 43 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Please RSVP to lmavros@mit.edu
Visit web.mit.edu/autism for more details including talk abstract.
The Simons Center for the Social Brain Colloquium Series
is a continuation of the Simons Initiative on Autism and the Brain’s Autism and Developmental Disorders Colloquium Series at MIT (web.mit.edu/autism).
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| Contact: |
Lee Mavros Rushton
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| Thursday, February 2, 2012
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Noon - 1:00 PM
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Neuroscience, Aging, and Nutrition Lecture Series
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| Description: |
Please join us for the Special Lecture Series “Neuroscience, Aging, and Nutrition” co-sponsored by the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging (HNRCA) at Tufts University and the Tufts School of Medicine Neuroscience Department.
The fourth Lecture will be held on Thursday, February 2, 2012 from 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. at the Auditorium of the Jean Mayer USDA HNRCA located at 711 Washington Street, Boston, MA. This is the fourth of six presentations in this special Lecture Series.
The “Neuroscience, Aging, and Nutrition Lecture Series” was created to celebrate the HNRCA’s new neuroscience and aging laboratory and to promote collaborations in the neuroscience research area.
Lecture #4: Dr. Bradford B. Lowell, Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Center for Life Science
"Circuits Regulating Feeding and Metabolism – Functional Dissection and Synaptic Mechanisms"
Host: Dr. Sarah Booth, Associate Director, HNRCA
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| Contact: |
Meghan Faherty
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5:00 PM - 7:00 PM
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Man and microbe: Exotic ales since the birth of civilization
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| Description: |
MSI Special Seminar and Beer Tasting
Title: Man and microbe: Exotic ales since the birth of civilization
Speaker: Sam Calagione (Dogfish Head Craft Brewery)
Location: Geological Museum Room 100, 24 Oxford St., Cambridge, MA
Tickets: Event is free, but tickets are required and become available on 1/19/12 at noon. Available by phone (617-496-2222) and internet (www.boxoffice.harvard.edu) for a fee. Tickets can also be picked up in person at the Harvard Box Office (Holyoke Ctr.).
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| Contact: |
Nora Millan Rivas
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| Tuesday, February 7, 2012
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12:30 PM - 1:30 PM
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| Wednesday, February 8, 2012
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11:30 AM - 1:00 PM
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Bioinformatics Seminar Series:CRISPR, adaptive immunity system in Archaea and Bacteria: Lamarckian evolution and a general model of evolution of environmental sensors
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| Description: |
Eugene V. Koonin, NIH/NLM/NCBI
TOC LAB Stata Center Building 32-Room G575.
The CRISPR-Cas adaptive immunity system is present in nearly all Archaea and about half of Bacteria. This system consists of arrays of Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR) and suits of CRISPR-Associated (cas) genes; the CRISPR cassettes contains unique spacers about 40 basepairs in length within each repeat unit. Some of the spacers are identical to fragments of viral or plasmid genes. It has been shown that Cas proteins provide enzymatic activities that are required for utilization of the spacer transcripts as guide RNAs to cleave and inactivate the cognate alien DNA and in some cases possibly mRNA. The CRISPR-Cas systems are encoded by operons that have extraordinarily diverse architectures and a high rate of evolution of both the cas genes and the unique spacer content. Three complementary approaches to the study of CRISPR evolution will be presented. First, comprehensive analysis of the sequences and structures of Cas proteins using the most sensitive methods of computational analysis yielded a simple scenario for the origin and evolution of the CRISPR-Cas systems that implies the origin of prokaryotic adaptive immunity in thermophilic Archaea. Second, a comprehensive analysis of the selection processes that act on cas genes revealed a gradient from moderate to extremely weak purifying selection across the cas gene suite. Third, a mathematical model based on a cost-benefit analysis of the CRISPR-Cas system in the course of its coevolution with viromes of varying diversity was developed. Exploration of the parameter space of this model shows that selection prevents the loss of the CRISPR-Cas system within an interval of moderate viral diversity. At both very low and very high viral diversity, CRISPR-Cas systems become practically useless for bacteria and archaea, and are lost due to their intrinsic cost. This model has more general applications for the evolution of various environmental sensors. The CRISPR-Cas systems that incorporate new information into a genome in response to environmental cues seem to present a case of bona fide Lamarckian evolution.
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| Contact: |
Patrice Macaluso
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| Thursday, February 9, 2012
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Noon - 1:00 PM
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Alveolar Augmentation and Implant Osseointegration: GBR, Bone Biomaterials, and Biologics
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| Description: |
Speaker: Ulf ME Wikesjö, DDS, DMD, PhD, Georgia Health Sciences University College of Dental Medicine
Location: The Forsyth Institute, Seminar Room A, 245 First St., 17th Fl., Cambridge
Abstract: Surgical placement of oral implants is governed by the prosthetic design and by the morphology and quality of the alveolar bone. Often, implant placement may be difficult, if at all possible, due to alveolar ridge aberrations. In consequence, prosthetically dictated implant positioning commonly entails bone augmentation procedures. One objective of our laboratory is to evaluate the biologic potential of bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs) including rhBMP-2, rhOP-1/rhBMP-7, rhGDF-5/rhCDMP-1, and other candidate biologics including PTH, osteoactivin, platelet-rich-plasma (PRP), and bone biomaterials and devices for alveolar ridge augmentation/implant fixation using discriminating, critical-size, clinically relevant supraalveolar defect models, peri-implantitis defect models and maxillary sinus models and canine, porcine and nonhuman primate platforms to explore their clinical potential. Critical-size rodent models are used for screening purposes of candidate biologics and biomaterials/scaffolds. This presentation will discuss the unique biologic potential, the clinical relevance and perspectives of recent and unpublished observations of BMP technologies for alveolar bone augmentation and oral implant fixation, in particular the development of a unique bone-inductive oral implant, BMP dosing and delivery strategies. This presentation will also address merits and explain short-comings of current treatment protocol including bone biomaterials, guided bone regeneration (GBR), and BMPs. Our studies suggest that BMPs have an unparalleled, dose dependent potential to augment alveolar bone and support implant osseointegration and long-term functional loading. Inclusion of BMPs for alveolar augmentation and osseointegration will not only enhance predictability of existing clinical protocol but radically change current treatment paradigms. Inclusion of the bone-inductive oral implant in the treatment panorama may make “grafting” and GBR procedures altogether obsolete.
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| Contact: |
Pam Quattrocchi
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4:00 PM - 5:00 PM
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5:30 PM - 7:00 PM
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| Tuesday, February 14, 2012
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12:30 PM - 1:30 PM
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4:00 PM - 5:00 PM
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| Wednesday, February 15, 2012
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10:00 AM - 11:00 AM
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11:30 AM - 1:00 PM
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Bioinformatics Seminar Series: Zooming out: New tools for probing the historical record and the human genome
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| Description: |
New structures often emerge when we explore a known phenomenon from a more global vantage point. For instance, any given book can be read and comprehended. But what happens when we try to read all the books at once? Or: the local structure of DNA is a double helix. But if DNA did not fold further, the human genome - which is two meters long - could never fit inside the nucleus of a cell. How does it fold? This talk will focus on the extraordinary potential of technologies that enable us to zoom out, in the process transforming familiar concepts, like the contents of a book or the shape of DNA, into new research horizons.
First, I will describe efforts, together with my collaborator Jean-Baptiste Michel and Google, to create tools for the quantitative analysis of a significant portion of the historical record. We began by constructing a reliable corpus of digitized texts containing about 4% of all books ever printed. Analysis of this corpus enables us to investigate cultural trends quantitatively. 'Culturomics' provides insights about fields as diverse as lexicography, the evolution of grammar, collective memory, the adoption of technology, the pursuit of fame, censorship, and historical epidemiology. The Google Ngram Viewer, a simple web-based tool we released for the analysis of this corpus, was used over a million times in the first 24 hours. Culturomics extends the boundaries of rigorous quantitative inquiry to a wide array of new phenomena spanning the social sciences and the humanities.
In the second half of my talk, I will describe Hi-C, a novel technology for probing the three-dimensional architecture of whole genomes. Developed together with collaborators at the Broad Institute and UMass Medical School, Hi-C couples proximity-dependent DNA ligation and massively parallel sequencing. My lab employs Hi-C to construct spatial proximity maps of the human genome. Hi-C maps have revealed that active and inactive portions of the human genome are spatially segregated, ie, that cells employ a sort of 'regulatory origami' as they turn genes on and off. At the megabase scale, the genomic fold is consistent with a fractal globule, a knot-free conformation that enables maximally dense packing while preserving the ability to easily fold and unfold any genomic locus.
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| Contact: |
Patrice Macaluso
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Noon - 1:00 PM
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Introduction to Western Blot Principles and Troubleshooting
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| Description: |
This free webinar is hosted by a Western Blot expert who will explain and answer questions about:
Sample preparation
Electrophoresis
Transfer of proteins and staining
Controls
Troubleshooting
This Webinar will benefit anyone who is looking for a brief introduction, and to those who would like to refresh their technique.
Registration is free, but required.
http://www.abcam.com/index.html?pageconfig=resource&rid=14329
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| Contact: |
Sarah Dolny
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6:00 PM - 7:30 PM
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"Autism in Infancy: Phenotypic Expression and Underlying Mechanisms"
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| Description: |
Katarzyna Chawarska, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Child Psychiatry, Director, Toddler Developmental Disabilities Clinic, Yale University School of Medicine, Child Study Center
Please RSVP to lmavros@mit.edu
The Simons Center for the Social Brain Colloquium Series is a continuation of the Simons Initiative on Autism and the Brain’s Autism and Developmental Disorders Colloquium Series at MIT (web.mit.edu/autism)
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| Contact: |
Lee Mavros Rushton
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| Thursday, February 16, 2012
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Noon - 1:00 PM
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Neuroscience, Aging, and Nutrition Lecture Series
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| Description: |
Please join us for the Special Lecture Series “Neuroscience, Aging, and Nutrition” co-sponsored by the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging (HNRCA) at Tufts University and the Tufts School of Medicine Neuroscience Department. The final Lecture will be held on Thursday February 16, 2012 from 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. at the Jean Mayer USDA HNRCA located at 711 Washington Street, Boston, MA. This is the last of six presentations in this special Lecture Series.
The “Neuroscience, Aging, and Nutrition Lecture Series” was created to celebrate the HNRCA’s new neuroscience and aging laboratory and to promote collaborations in the neuroscience research area.
Lecture #6: “Blunting Inflammation in the Aging Brain: Using Natural Products to Modulate Lipid Raft Signaling"
Speaker: Thomas B. Kuhn, PhD: Associate Professor of Biochemistry and Neuroscience, University of Alaska Fairbanks
Host: Dr. Sarah Booth, Associate Director, HNRCA
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| Contact: |
Meghan Faherty
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| Friday, February 17, 2012
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8:30 AM - 9:30 AM
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Cheese microbial communities
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| Description: |
MSI Weekly Chalktalk. Please join us for coffee/tea and pastries at 8:30, followed by the chalktalk at 8:45AM.
Speaker: Rachel Dutton (FAS-Center for Systems Biology)
Location: Harvard Center for the Environment (HUCE), 24 Oxford St, 3rd Floor, Room 310
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| Contact: |
Andrea Lenco
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12:30 PM - 1:30 PM
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How did our adaptive immune system evolve?
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| Description: |
Max D. Cooper, Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar
Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Emory University School of Medicine
Fred S. Rosen Conference Room, CLSB 3069, Immune Disease Institute, 3 Blackfan Circle
Hosted by: Fred Alt
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| Contact: |
Zac DiPasquale
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| Monday, February 27, 2012
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8:00 AM - 6:00 PM
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IQPC’s Cancer Immunotherapy Conference
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| Description: |
IQPC’s Cancer Immunotherapy Conference
Date: February 27-29, 2012 (8 am to 6 pm)
Location: Metro Meeting Centers, 101 Federal St, Boston
Dr Grace Wong (CEO of ActoKine Therapeutics) is a speaker for this cancer immunotherapy conference on Feb 27-29, 2012 in Boston, she will have 10 free guest passes for student, postdoc & scientists.
Apply for a free pass at www.nobel-pauling.org.
Confirmed Speakers Include:
Grace Wong, PhD, CEO, ActoKine Therapeutics
John Rothman, PhD, Executive VP: Science and Operations, Advaxis Inc.; Ramana Davuluri, PhD, Molecular and Cellular Oncogenesis Program, Wistar Institute; Elma Hawkins, PhD, Head of Clinical Development, ImmunoCellular Therapeutics;
Jeffrey Schlom, PhD, Chief, Laboratory of Tumor Immunology and Biology, NCI; James Gulley, MD, PhD, Director, Laboratory of Tumor Immunology and Biology, NCI;
Dirk Brockstedt, PhD, SVP, Research & Development, Aduro BioTech;Anthony Madia, PhD, MA, MBA, COO, Northwest Biotherapeutics, Inc.; Eric von Hofe, PhD, President, Antigen Express; Ken Brasel, Scientist II, Dendreon Corporation;
Leisha Emens, MD, PhD, Professor, Oncology, Johns Hopkins University of Medicine; David Avigan, MD, Hematology-Oncology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center; Nicola La Monica, PhD, VP, Idera Pharmaceuticals;
John Vasilakos, PhD, Sr. Research Immunologist & Business Director, 3M Company;Mohamed Hussein, MD, VP, Medical Affairs, Celgene; Zihai Li, MD, PhD, Professor, Microbiology & Immunology, University of South Carolina
For more information visit http://www.cancerimmunotherapyevent.com/Event.aspx?id=623580
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| Contact: |
Alex Pauling
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| Tuesday, February 28, 2012
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12:30 PM - 1:30 PM
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When Autophagy Meets Microbes
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| Description: |
Jae Jung, University of Southern California
Hosted by Ronald Desrosiers
Warren Alpert Building Room 563, Harvard Medical School
Coffee and snacks served at 12:15 pm outside the room
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| Contact: |
Jessica Conner
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4:00 PM - 5:00 PM
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| Wednesday, February 29, 2012
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11:30 AM - 1:00 PM
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Bioinformatics Seminar Series: Shape Shifting: protein statistical physics as a linear programming problem
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| Description: |
Jeremy England, MIT
TOC Lab STATA Center 32-G575
Since a protein's shape typically provides the basis for its function, the conformational rearrangements of proteins in response to ligand binding, mutation, and covalent modification very often underlie biologically important molecular events, whether in the normal course of transducing a signal or through deleterious misfolding. A new analytical model of how structure depends on sequence enables us to use linear programming to examine many of these phenomena from the standpoint of statistical mechanics, so that we may begin to predict and explain specific changes in protein structure ranging from allosteric motion to the onset of aggregation disease.
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| Contact: |
Patrice Macaluso
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| Thursday, March 1, 2012
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5:00 PM - 7:00 PM
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Beneath the Surface: The Development and Cultural Impact of Radiology
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| Description: |
Join us for an exploration of the history of radiology, including the development of the X-ray, the pioneering “radiology martyrs,” and radiology’s pervasive influence on visual culture.
More information, including our speakers, can be found here: https://cms.www.countway.harvard.edu/wp/?p=5078
All are welcome! RSVP to the Center for the History of Medicine, Countway Library: contactchom@hms.harvard.edu or 617-432-2170.
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| Contact: |
Heather Cristiano
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| Friday, March 2, 2012
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8:30 AM - 9:30 AM
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Microbial symbioses: Marine bacteria and microalgae
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| Description: |
MSI Weekly Chalktalk. Please join us for coffee/tea and pastries at 8:30, followed by the chalktalk at 8:45AM.
Speaker: Mohammad Seyedsayamdost (HMS-BCMP)
Location: Harvard Center for the Environment (HUCE), 24 Oxford St, 3rd Floor, Room 310
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| Contact: |
Andrea Lenco
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Month of February 2012
