Archives Events
Brady Weissbourd, PhD - Department of Biology, MIT -- CSB Seminar
CSB Departmental Seminar
Friday, January 23rd @ 11:00 am
SPEAKER: Brady Weissbourd, PhD - Department of Biology, MIT
TITLE: Mechanisms of robustness in jellyfish neural networks
ABSTRACT: We use the tiny, transparent jellyfish, Clytia hemisphaerica, to ask questions at the interface of nervous system evolution, regeneration, and function. Our foundation is in systems neuroscience, where we use genetic and optical techniques to examine how behavior arises from the activity of networks of neurons. Building from this work, we investigate how the Clytia nervous system is so robust, both to the constant integration of newborn neurons and following large-scale injury. Lastly, we use Clytia’s evolutionary position to study principles of nervous system evolution and make inferences about the origins of nervous systems. In this seminar, I will describe a coordinated feeding behavior and how we think this behavior is controlled by a particular subnetwork of neurons. I will then present preliminary data following up on the surprising observation that this whole network can regenerate following ablation. With the new genetic and optical tools that are now available, I believe that there is much to discover using these fascinating creatures.
HOST: Student Invitee (Calarco Lab)
LOCATION: Cell and Systems Biology, 25 Harbord Street, Suite 432
LIVESTREAM LINK: https://csb.utoronto.ca/live-stream/
Eyal Gruntman, PhD - Department of Cell and Systems Biology, University of Toronto, Scarborough -- CSB Seminar
CSB Departmental Seminar
Friday, January 30th @ 11:00 am
SPEAKER: Eyal Gruntman, PhD - Department of Cell and Systems Biology, University of Toronto, Scarborough
TITLE: Fundamental visual computations in Drosophila – from motion and beyond
ABSTRACT: The computation of directional selectivity has been studied for decades in both vertebrate and invertebrate visual systems and has given rise to competing algorithmic models. Using specific driver lines and insights from fly connectomics, I will discuss how detailed mapping of the receptive fields of the first directionally selective cells in the eye revealed the underlying mechanism. These cells, the T4 and T5 neurons, are responsible for calculating motion in the ON and OFF pathways, respectively. I will discuss their surprising interactions and what we can learn about visual processing from the full connectome of the fly brain.
HOST: Qian Lin
LOCATION: Cell and Systems Biology, 25 Harbord Street, Suite 432
LIVESTREAM LINK: https://csb.utoronto.ca/live-stream/
Candidate for Assistant Professor, Animal Morphogenesis -- CSB Special Seminar
Candidate for Assistant Professor, Animal Morphogenesis
Monday, February 2nd @ 11:00 am
HOST: Tony Harris
LOCATION: Cell and Systems Biology, 25 Harbord Street, Suite 432
Rajagopal Subramaniam, PhD - Agriculture Canada, Ottawa -- CSB Seminar
CSB Departmental Seminar
Friday, February 6th @ 11:00 am
SPEAKER: Rajagopal Subramaniam, PhD - Agriculture Canada, Ottawa
TITLE: Network analysis identifies hubs in the regulation of secondary metabolite biosynthesis in F. graminearum
ABSTRACT: Secondary metabolism in fungi is regulated by plethora environmental signals. To integrate the signalling pathways, we constructed a protein interaction network called the Fusarium Network of Trichothecene Associated Proteins (FuNTAP) that integrates proteins identified from various signalling pathways involved in the biosynthesis of mycotoxin deoxynivalenol (DON) in Fusarium graminearum (Fg). The study employed network centrality analysis that identified fourteen 'core' proteins that play a decisive role in regulating many secondary metabolite production. Through genetic and metabolomic profiling, we validated the involvement of 'core' proteins in the regulation DON and other secondary metabolites such as fusaoctaxin and gramillin. Proximal identification of proteins by TurboID with the major hub, FgRic8 reinforced the effective use of network analysis to parse out myriad environmental cues to distinct signalling pathways.
HOST: Darrell Desveaux
LOCATION: Cell and Systems Biology, 25 Harbord Street, Suite 432
LIVESTREAM LINK: https://csb.utoronto.ca/live-stream/
Candidate for Assistant Professor, Animal Morphogenesis -- CSB Special Seminar
Candidate for Assistant Professor, Animal Morphogenesis
Wednesday, February 11th @ 11:00 am
HOST: Arneet Saltzman
LOCATION: Cell and Systems Biology, 25 Harbord Street, Suite 432
Judith Mandl, PhD - Department of Physiology, McGill University -- CSB Seminar
CSB Departmental Seminar
Friday, February 20th @ 11:00 am
SPEAKER: Judith Mandl, PhD - Department of Physiology, McGill University
TITLE: Feeling their way to immunity: The emerging role of T cell proprioception
ABSTRACT:
Judith Mandl, PhD, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Physiology at McGill University and currently holds a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Immune Cell Dynamics.
Her team studies the complex migration choreography of immune cells that is critical to effective immune responses, with a particular focus on T cells.
Recent work has focused on the specific challenges T cells face as they move through tissues, to what extent nuclear deformability and cytoskeletal processes define how T cells make decisions as they navigate, the consequences of perturbing immune cell migration for T cell function and differentiation, and the specific interactions made by T cells during their migration which leads to heterogeneity in their behaviour.
Her lab applies state-of-the-art microscopy and systems biology tools, using mouse models to link aspects of individual immune cell migratory behaviour to both within-cell cytoskeletal processes and whole organismal-level readouts such as cell differentiation, homeostasis and responses to infection.
HOST: Sergey Plotnikov
LOCATION: Cell and Systems Biology, 25 Harbord Street, Suite 432
LIVESTREAM LINK: https://csb.utoronto.ca/live-stream/