Unique among pathogens of eukaryotes, retroviruses are distinctive in their replication through an obligate integrated DNA intermediate — the provirus — resulting in many biological consequences unique to this virus group. This talk will focus on two such consequences: the rich “fossil record” of infection of our primate ancestors for more than 100 million years in the form of endogenous proviruses; and our inability, despite the availability of highly effective viral treatments, to cure HIV infection.
Michael Laub, Ph.D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Toxin-antitoxin (TA) systems are ubiquitous genetic elements in bacterial genomes, but their functions are poorly understood and even controversial. To better understand these systems, we developed an RNA-seq-based method for sensitively probing their activities in vivo. Using this method, we find no compelling evidence to support the purported role of TA systems as stress-response modules, despite their strong transcriptional induction following stress. Instead, we find that some TA systems provide potent protection against bacteriophage.
Phillip Zamore, Ph.D. University of Massachusetts Medical School
Animals, plants, and other eukaryotes use Argonaute proteins, guided by short RNA sequences, to defend cells against transposons and viruses. Many bacterial genomes also encode Argonaute proteins, but their functions remain unknown. The best studied eubacterial Argonaute is the DNA-guided protein TtAgo from Thermus thermophilus. TtAgo has been proposed to defend T. thermophilus against transformation by DNA plasmids, a function analogous to transposon defense in eukaryotes. I will describe our discovery that in T. thermophilus, TtAgo confers resistance to the antibiotic ciprofloxacin.
Evidence has indicated that the cerebrovasculature is an important target and that brain endothelial cells show prominent age-related transcriptional changes in response to plasma. Scientists also have discovered that plasma proteins are taken up broadly into the brain and that this process varies between individual endothelial cells and with aging. Researchers are currently exploring the relevance of these findings for neurodegeneration.
For her April 7 lecture, Dr. Brunet will present her lab’s work on the regulation of brain aging and rejuvenation, notably the role of the immune system. She will discuss how her lab pioneered the naturally short-lived African killifish as a new model to identify principles underlying vertebrate aging.
Dr. Widemann will define rare tumors and genetic tumor predisposition syndromes and their unmet medical need. This will be followed by approaches taken in the NIH intramural research program, which provides unique resources to study rare tumors. She will highlight this in examples of NF1, RASopathies, and other rare tumors in children and adults. In addition to providing examples of advances, Dr. Widemann will highlight remaining challenges and future directions.
Dr. Chen’s WALS lecture will detail her lab’s effort to understand the root cause of cystic fibrosis, the most common lethal genetic disorder in populations of Northern European descent, affecting one out of every 2500 newborns. Cystic fibrosis is caused by mutations in a single gene, the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR). CFTR belongs to the ABC superfamily. Yet whereas other ABC transporters utilize the chemical energy of ATP hydrolysis to transport substrates against their chemical gradients, CFTR conducts anions down their electrochemical gradient.
Professor Herr’s research program seeks to advance technologies that promise to accelerate the merging of body and machine, including device architectures that resemble the body’s musculoskeletal design, actuator technologies that behave like muscle, and control methodologies that exploit principles of biological movement. His methods encompass a diverse set of scientific and technological disciplines, from the science of biomechanics and biological movement control to the design of biomedical devices for the treatment of human physical disability.
Seven viruses collectively comprise an important cause of cancer, particularly in less developed countries and under conditions of immune suppression. Most of these viruses are common infections for which malignancy is a rare consequence. Viral tumors are by nature biological accidents and tumor viruses are generally ‘non-permissive’ for replication within tumor cells having contracted expression of viral products.
The subtype of AI, deep learning, has recently been used for a variety of medical applications, particularly image interpretation, across many disciplines. It is early, but these deep neural networks have considerable transformative potential to promote accuracy, streamline workflow, synthesize data for both clinicians and patients, promote patient autonomy, and greatly enhance the patient–clinician relationship. To date, prospective validation studies are quite limited, and we need to confront such vital issues of how AI can unintendedly worsen inequities and discrimination.
This page was last updated on Tuesday, August 10, 2021
