Abstract: Transcription, the fundamental cellular process by which DNA is copied to RNA, is tightly regulated in healthy human development but frequently dysregulated in disease. During or shortly after transcription, regions known as “introns” are spliced out of the RNA to produce mature “messenger” RNA. Massively parallel sequencing of RNA (RNA-seq) has become a ubiquitous technology in...
Past PMB Seminars
For a schedule of all Plant & Microbial Biology events, seminars, and lectures visit our calendar.
Peter Dodds: Harnessing plant immune receptors for resistance to wheat stem rust
Dr Dodds' focus is on fungal rust diseases, which constitute one of the most significant threats to cereal crops worldwide. The recent emergence of the highly virulent wheat stem rust strain Ug99 is of particular concern to world food security. Dr Dodds' research has used the pathogenic interaction between flax and the flax rust fungus as a model for understanding the basis of rust disease as...
Dr. Mingfu Shao, Department of Computational Biology, Carnegie Mellon University
Title: Abstract: I will present modeling and algorithmic designs for two challenging problems in biology and argue that efficient computational methods enable significant advances in our understanding of cell machinery and genome evolution. The first problem is the assembly of full-length transcripts -- the collection of expressed gene products in cells -- from noisy and highly...
Yangnan Gu: Gating Plant Immunity and Death at the Nuclear Boundary
The Gu lab uses a combined molecular, cellular, genetic, biochemical, biostatistical and bioinformatic approach to study the intriguing mechanism behind host-pathogen interactions. They focus on the role of targeted membrane trafficking and coordinated nucleocytoplasmic transport in activation, regulation and termination of the innate immunity. They are also interested in the immune regulatory...
Dr. Javier A. Ceja-Navarro: Caminos de la Ciencia
This Presentation will be in Spanish / Esta presentación será en español En esta presentación, el Dr. Javier A. Ceja-Navarro, investigador del Laboratorio Nacional de Berkeley, nos hablará sobre su trayectoria en la ciencia y las oportunidades que lo han llevado a estudiar microbios, bichos y el medio ambiente. Javier nació en Tuxpan, Nayarit, México, y realizó toda su preparación...
Dr. Aaron McKenna, Department of Genome Sciences, University of Washington
Abstract: Multicellular organisms develop by way of a lineage tree, a series of cell divisions that give rise to cell types, tissues, and organs. However, our knowledge of the cell lineage and its determinants remains extremely fragmentary for nearly all species. This includes all vertebrates and arthropods such as Drosophila, wherein cell lineage varies between individuals; embryos and organs.
Alisha Quandt: Life on the inside: the evolutionary consequences of intracellular parasitism in cryptic Fungi
I'm interested in all aspects of fungal biology. My research is focused on addressing three fundamental questions in mycology: (1) How do fungi evolve the ability to switch hosts or adapt to utilize various substrates? (2) How do fungi interact with other microorganisms? and (3) Where are potential unexplored habitats of novel fungal diversity? Genomics, metagenomics, transcriptomics,...
