Life Sciences Seminars

The Life Sciences Seminars (previously known as ABC seminars) are organised monthly by the Master's programmes. The seminars are given by well-known, international scientists who present their research on topics covering the full range of biomedical and life sciences. Information about dates, locations and speakers can be found below;

Life Sciences Seminars 2011 - 2012:
(The LS seminars are planned every third thursday of the month)

1. 22 September 2011 - Xtrack - Website
2. 20 October 2011 - Biomedical Image Sciences
3. 17 November 2011 - Infection and Immunity
4. 15 December 2011 - Neuroscience and Cognition
5. 19 January 2012 - Toxicology & Environmental Health - CANCELLED! 
6. 16 February 2012 - Drug Innovation
7. 15 March 2012 - Biology of Disease
8. 19 April 2012 - Cancer Genomics and Developmental Biology
9. 24 May 2012 - Epidemiology
10. 14 June 2012 - Molecular & Cellular Life Sciences

May 24th 2012 - Epidemiology "The mathematics of epidemics and pandemics"

Location: UMC Utrecht, Blue lecture hall, 16:00h

Professor Mick Roberts
Mathematical Biology
Massey University, Albany

SUMMARY
Mathematical models are often used to explain the dynamics of infectious diseases. By representing the relationships between individuals in a population (hosts), insights may be gained into how infections spread. Once the dynamics are understood, it is then possible to determine how an infection may be controlled or eliminated. This talk will focus on diseases of humans caused by viruses. For childhood diseases such as measles, contact is increased during school terms, and the age-structure of the population is important. A model shows why a high level of vaccine coverage is necessary to prevent epidemics. Mosquito-borne viruses such as dengue are spreading due to climate change. For these, the dynamics within the human and mosquito hosts and the interactions between them are important. Models are able to determine which host populations are reservoirs of infection, and hence responsible for maintaining the disease. Other viruses, like influenza and HIV, are difficult to bring under control, as they evolve rapidly to avoid the immune response of the host. Mathematical models help us to understand their epidemiology and guide public health interventions. An introduction to how these models are constructed and analysed will be presented, using a minimum of mathematics.

BIOGRAPHY
Mick Roberts is Professor in Mathematical Biology at Massey University, Albany. His research interest is mathematical epidemiology: modelling and explaining how infectious diseases are transmitted, how they persist in populations, and how they may be controlled. He has published over a hundred papers on the subject, many in leading international journals. He has advised the New Zealand Ministry of Health on changes to the measles and pertussis (whooping cough) vaccination schedules, on pandemic influenza preparedness, and on response plans for SARS and smallpox outbreaks. He advised the World Health Organisation during the SARS pandemic, and the European Commission during the BSE crisis.  He has held positions as a Christensen Fellow at St. Catherine’s College, Oxford, and as a Visiting Research Professor at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. Professor Roberts is a Fellow of the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications (UK) and of the Royal Society of New Zealand. He is based in the Institute of Information and Mathematical Sciences, and is a member of the New Zealand Institute for Advanced Study.

April 19th 2012 - Cancer Genomics and Developmental Biology "Mechanisms of cellular aging and rejuvenation during yeast budding"

Location: UMC Utrecht, Blue lecture hall, 16:00h

Prof. Yves Barral
Institute of Biochemistry, 
ETH Zurich, Switzerland

SUMMARY:
Aging, first envisioned as a specialty of metazoans, also affects unicellular organisms, probably through very similar mechanisms across evolution.  For example, budding yeast proliferates through asymmetric divisions, where the daughter cell buds from the surface of its mother.  While daughter cells are born young, the mother cell ages at each division.  This process, called replicative aging, offers exceptional conditions to observe aging of individual cells and characterize the molecular and cellular events associated with this process.  It also offers the opportunity to investigate the mechanisms through which age is reset in the daughters.
Over the last few years, my lab identified lateral diffusion barriers in the plane of internal membranes at the bud neck.  These barriers, present in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and the nuclear envelope, limit the exchange of membrane-associated macromolecules between mother and bud.  Remarkably, mutations abrogating these barriers impair the rejuvenation of buds, and extend the longevity of their mothers, indicating that they help maintaining age in the mother.  We have used these observations to search for aging factors and investigate the processes in which they are normally involved.  These studies suggest a remarkable conclusion:  Aging factors do not only comprise damages, but also memory traces contributing to the individuation of the cell. Thus, individuation, or specification, of the cell appears tightly interlinked to its aging.  We will discuss the molecular bases of cellular memory as they emerge from our observations, their possible contribution to aging, as well as possible mechanisms through which cells regulate their longevity.

March 15th 2012 - Biology of Disease "Minerals on the move: from new ion transporters to NOVEL concepts"

Location: UMC Utrecht, Blue lecture hall, 16:00h





Prof. René J.M. Bindels
Department of Physiology
Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre, Nijmegen, Netherlands

SUMMARY:
Ca²⁺ and Mg²⁺ are of great physiological importance in their function in neural excitability, muscle contraction, blood coagulation, bone formation, hormone secretion and cell adhesion. The human body is equipped with an efficient negative feedback system counteracting variations of the Ca²⁺ and Mg²⁺ balance. These divalents are maintained within a narrow range by the small intestine and kidney which both increase their fractional (re)absorption under conditions of deprivation. Rapid progress has recently been made in identification and characterization of the Ca²⁺ and Mg²⁺ transport proteins contributing to the delicate balance of divalent cations. Expression cloning approaches in combination with knockout mice models and genetic studies in families with a disturbed Mg²⁺ balance revealed novel gatekeeper proteins that belong to the super family of the transient receptor potential (TRP) channels. These epithelial Ca²⁺ (TRPV5 and TRPV6) and Mg²⁺ channels (TRPM6 and TRPM7) form prime targets for hormonal control of the active Ca²⁺ and Mg²⁺ flux from the urine space or intestinal lumen to the blood compartment. The characteristics of the newly identified transporters will be discussed and in particular the distinctive molecular regulation of these new epithelial Ca²⁺ and Mg²⁺ channels in (patho)physiological situations will be highlighted.

Website: http://www.physiomics.eu/ion-transport/our-people/ren%C3%A9-bindels-phd/

BIOGRAPHY:
René Bindels is as physiologist interested in the regulation of ion transport processes in kidney and small intestine in health and disease. Current projects involve the molecular mechanisms controlling the calcium and magnesium balance in general and the regulation of the new family of epithelial calcium and magnesium channels (TRPV5, TRPV6, TRPM6 and TRPM7) in particular. In addition, the functional consequences of mutations in the human ROMK2, NKCC2, NCC and TRPM6 transporters identified in Bartter and Gitelman syndrome and inherited hypomagnesemia are investigated. The studies include use of established epithelial cell lines, tissue-specific knockout mice models, and electrophysiological and biochemical analysis of channel activity. He is responsible for several physiology courses for medical and health science students. He is an elected member of the Academia Europaea and recipient of the Robert Pitts Lectureship of the International Union of Physiological Sciences, Carl W. Gottschalk Lectureship of the American Physiological Society and Homer Smith award of the American Society of Nephrology. He is professor & chair of Physiology of the Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre and scientific director of the Nijmegen Centre for Molecular Life Science (NCMLS).

February 16th 2012 - Drug Innovation

Location: UMC Utrecht, Blue lecture hall, 16:00h






Professor Chrit Moonen
Director of the Laboratory for Molecular and Functional Imaging at CNRS/University Victor Segalen (Bordeaux, France)

The team “Molecular and Functional Imaging: From Physiology to Therapy” is a newly created technology development research laboratory (created January 1, 2003) run jointly by the National Center for Scientific Research and the University Victor Segalen Bordeaux. It is composed of about 25 researchers combining physicists, radiologists, biologists, and image processing experts. The team has a strong position in physiological imaging (biomarkers, functional imaging), interventional imaging (thermal therapies) and in the development of image-guided molecular therapies. L ocal drug delivery and activation is especially of interest in gene therapy, because the low specificity of vectors and lack of spatial and temporal control of gene expression are among the main pitfalls of gene therapy. The Bordeaux-group has developed a control system based on the use of the heat sensitive promoter HSP70 and local hyperthermia generated non-invasively by an MRI guided focused ultrasound probe to control local gene expression. Currently, this technology is being expanded to control the transplantation and activation of stem cells. The team is strongly involved in the installation of a cyclotron at Bordeaux, and an association with the Nuclear Medicine Department has been established. The team has high level research collaborations with Philips Medical Systems on imaging technology, Guerbet and Amersham on the development of contrast media, Johns Hopkins Medical School on stem cells, and with the US National Institutes of Health on gene therapy control.
Source: DiMI, http://www.dimi.eu/index.php?id=439

December 15th 2011 - Neuroscience and Cognition "Trafficking mechanisms in neurons"

Location: UMC Utrecht, Blue lecture hall, NOTE! Starting time is 16:00h







Prof.dr. C. Hoogenraad
Cell Biology, Faculty of Science, Utrecht University

SUMMARY:
The human brain consists of more than one hundred billion neurons, intricately connected into functional neuronal circuits. A neuron's ability to receive, process and transmit information depends on its polarized organization into axons and dendrites. But how is the polarized organization established and maintained in neurons? Studies on polarized trafficking have demonstrated various mechanisms for compartment-specific localization. For example, several polarized cargos are non-specifically transported to both axons and dendrites and are then selectively retained at the required compartments. Alternatively, many axonal proteins are correctly sorted into axons whereas dendritic components move specifically into dendrites.

The primary goal of the lab is to understand how intracellular protein trafficking underlies neuronal polarity and development. We particularly focus on the areas of neuronal cytoskeleton, cargo trafficking and synaptic plasticity. The research in the lab can roughly be divided in three themes: i) Cytoskeleton dynamics during neurodevelopment and synaptic plasticity ii) Motor proteins and adaptors as regulators of synaptic transport iii) Neuropsychiatric disorders linked to intracellular transport.

REFERENCES: 

• Hoogenraad CC, Bradke F. Control of neuronal polarity and plasticity--a renaissance for microtubules? Trends Cell Biol. 2009 
• Kapitein LC, Hoogenraad CC. Which way to go? Cytoskeletal organization and polarized transport in neurons. Mol Cell Neurosci. 2011 

BRIEF CV: Casper Hoogenraad obtained his PhD at the Erasmus University Rotterdam in 2001. He was postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Morgan Sheng (Massachusetts Institute of Technology). In 2005 he started a research group at the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam. In 2011 he was appointed Professor of Cell Biology at Utrecht University. His lab develops and applies new molecular, cellular and high-resolution live cell imaging approaches to study transport mechanisms in neurons.

MORE INFORMATION: http://www.cellbio.nl

November 17th 2011 - Infection and Immunity "Malaria and the liver: Rational development of a whole-organism vaccine"

Location: UMC Utrecht, Blue lecture hall, NOTE! Starting time is 16:00h

Prof. Kai Matuschewski
Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology, Berlin


SUMMARY: 

Malaria continues to be the most important vector-borne infectious disease. It is caused by unicellular eukaryotes of the genus Plasmodium that have the unique capacity to invade and replicate within erythrocytes, terminally differentiated cells. Malaria pathology is caused exclusively by Plasmodium blood stages and is preceded by a clinically silent parasite expansion phase in the liver.

In experimental animal models, lasting sterilizing immunity against re-infection can be elicited by two alternative experimental whole organisms vaccine strategies that lead to a defined arrest of Plasmodium liver stages. Live irradiation- or genetically arrested parasites are metabolically active and correspond to classical attenuated vaccines. Specific anti-malarial treatment during experimental natural sporozoite infections prevents a febrile malaria episode and, simultaneously, induces effective anti-liver stage immunity.      

Systematic testing of these strategies has the potential to inform the development of a safe, affordable and accessible pediatric second-generation anti-malaria vaccine. In addition, profiling of attenuated parasites can lead to the identification of protective antigens that have been elusive thus far. Together, precise genetic and pharmacological attenuation of parasite development in the liver is an important approach towards vaccine discovery.

October 20th 2011 - Biomedical Image Sciences "MRI of the Injured Brain: Translational Imaging Strategies"

Location: UMC Utrecht, Blue lecture hall, NOTE! Starting time is 16:00h

Rick M. Dijkhuizen, Ph.D.
Biomedical MR Imaging and Spectroscopy Group Image Sciences Institute University Medical Center Utrecht

SUMMARY: Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) provides a versatile tool to study brain structure and function in health and disease, which has led to widespread applications that range from experimental studies on brain function to clinical diagnosis of brain disorders. Recent developments in high-field MRI technology and contrast agent chemistry have opened up additional opportunities for measurement of cellular and molecular events. In addition, advanced image analysis methods have provided means to assess whole-brain networks at a systems level. The combination of different MRI techniques therefore enables multiparametric assessment of the (patho)physiology, and structural and functional (re)organization of the brain in a unique way. This has been of particular interest for studies on neurological disorders, such as stroke, in which MRI allows longitudinal monitoring of processes leading to brain damage or repair, as well as identification of biomarkers that classify tissue status or predict tissue outcome. Furthermore, the availability of MRI in hospital and laboratory settings provides an optimal basis for translation between (pre)clinical and experimental research in humans and animal models. In my presentation I will give an overview of the current status and perspectives of structural, functional and molecular MRI strategies to assess different aspects of brain (patho)physiology and network (re)organization. The focus will be particularly on applications in clinical and experimental stroke studies.

September 22nd 2011 - Xtrack Symposium 2011 “Beyond the Genome: Epigenetics and the Histone Code”

Location: Megaron Lecture Hall, Educatorium, Uithof
Website: www.xtrack2011.com

Recent genetic studies suggest that answers to many of our questions about human development and disease are not only found in the genomic sequence itself, but also in the interactions between DNA and regulative proteins. These regulatory proteins enable the fine tuning of gene expression that controls basic biological processes. We have long known that there is more hereditary information which is passed on in cells than only the DNA itself.  This field is broadly called epigenetics. Scientists now suggest that the epigenetic landscape is a controlling environment which is influenced by a certain code within the histone proteins around which the DNA strand is wrapped. It is hypothesised that this "histone code" plays an important role in defining and maintaining gene expression patterns of the genome. The importance of this regulation is clearly demonstrated by the fact that all cells in an organism share the same genetic material, yet vast differences exist in the activity of specific genes between different cell types.  It is these differences which allow each cell type to develop its own distinctive properties and functions.

The Xtrack Symposium 2011 presents the topic “Beyond the Genome: Epigenetics and the Histone Code” from a new, innovative perspective which will allow the audience to understand the enigma behind the histone code, its influence on the readout of the human genome, and how this can be directly linked to vital processes involved in human development and disease progression. To this end, we strive to bring together high profile scientists investigating the histone code from different perspectives and from different fields. The symposium is designed such that the topic is discussed in a logical sequence that will guide the audience through the complex nature of gene regulation. The four lectures are planned to address the following questions:

1. What is the histone code and how does it influence the activity of the genome?
2. How are biological network structures designed which can help in a) answering biological questions, such as functional characterization of DNA-protein interactions, characterization of genes and gene products, and b) exploiting information with bioinformatics tools which explain underlying molecular mechanisms of disease progression?
3. What are the diseases related to perturbations of the biological pathways that create the “histone code” and can these perturbations be directly linked to human diseases and common events in cancer progression?
4. How can the recent findings of Histone protein regulation be integrated into “classical” epigenetic studies that investigate population-wide effects of the environment on human development over many generations by, for example, longitudinal studies?