Mon 05 Feb 18:00: Structural Biology, Bioinformatics and Drug Discovery: Learning from Targeting Cancer to Combat Mycobacterial Infections
Knowledge derived from genome sequences of humans and pathogens has the potential to accelerate diagnosis, prognosis, and cure of disease. We have moved quickly into an era of precision medicine, not only in familial diseases where a mutation in a human gene is important, but also for understanding somatic mutations in cancer. Equally important, the genome sequences of mycobacterial bacterial pathogens in tuberculosis, cystic fibrosis, and leprosy, can give clues about the choice of protein targets in drug discovery. These include those of existing drugs, and the design of new medicines to combat the increasing occurrence of drug resistance.
Structure-guided approaches, both in academia and large pharma, have informed drug discovery for nearly six decades. Over the past 24 years, fragment-based structure-guided techniques have proved effective in lead discovery for cancer, particularly in Astex, a company I cofounded in 1999. In parallel in my academic laboratory in Cambridge University we have used these techniques to target mycobacterial infections not only for tuberculosis, but also for mycobacterial infections of patients with cystic fibrosis and leprosy.
Computational approaches, using both statistical and machine learning methods, have proved to be of major complementary value, particularly in understanding ligand binding and mechanisms of drug resistance. These have led to new ideas about repurposing and redesigning drugs for tuberculosis and other mycobacterial infections.
- Speaker: Professor Sir Tom Blundell
- Monday 05 February 2024, 18:00-19:30
- Venue: Pfizer Lecture Theatre, Department of Chemistry, Lensfield Road.
- Series: SciSoc – Cambridge University Scientific Society; organiser: Drishtant Chakraborty.
Mon 29 Jan 18:00: [CANCELLED] Birds of a Feather: the Deep History of Dinosaur Skin
[CANCELLED DUE TO ILL HEATLTH ]
For decades it was assumed that all dinosaurs had scaly skin, like that of their living reptilian relatives, an idea backed up by spectacular discoveries of complete ‘mummified’ hadrosaurs. However, the realisation that birds were direct descendants of small, meat-eating dinosaurs led some to speculate that feathers could have presaged flight and might be found in close bird relatives. Beginning in 1996, a series of spectacular fossils was unearthed in ancient Cretaceous lake deposits from northwest China. These animals, with exquisite skin preservation, showed – without question – that many non-avian dinosaurs possessed a variety of feather types. However, as direct evidence of skin structure is available only from rare Lagerstätte deposits that preserve soft tissue information, which are formed under unusual geological conditions, it’s unclear when feathers first appeared. Moreover, it’s not known if feathers characterised all dinosaurs or just sub-groups thereof. Other discoveries of feather-like structures across the dinosaur evolutionary tree, and in close dinosaur relatives like the flying reptiles (pterosaurs), have further muddied the picture. A combination of evolutionary modelling, developmental biology, geology and palaeontology is being used to try and answer this question, which is fundamental to understanding why and how feathers appeared.
- Speaker: Prof Paul Barrett
- Monday 29 January 2024, 18:00-19:30
- Venue: Pfizer Lecture Theatre, Department of Chemistry, Lensfield Road.
- Series: SciSoc – Cambridge University Scientific Society; organiser: Drishtant Chakraborty.
Thu 08 Feb 19:30: Pollinator Conservation – and your Lawn To be added to the mailing list to receive the login for Zoom events, email webmaster [at] cnhs.org.uk
Morgan Morrison is researching pollinator conservation at Royal Holloway, University of London.
She will talk about her PhD research which covers all aspects of pollinator conservation, from bees, butterflies and hoverflies to disease, protected areas and citizen science.
Morgan will cover questions about “Are diseases spillover from honeybees to wild bee?” all the way to “How can citizens help pollinators all from the comfort of their lawns?”.
She will also be introducing a citizen science study taking place in summer with which you could help.
To be added to the mailing list to receive the login for Zoom events, email webmaster [at] cnhs.org.uk
- Speaker: Morgan Morrison, Researcher, Royal Holloway, University of London
- Thursday 08 February 2024, 19:30-21:00
- Venue: Main Seminar Room (First Floor) David Attenborough Building, University of Cambridge Pembroke St, Cambridge CB2 3QZ.
- Series: Cambridge Natural History Society; organiser: events.
Thu 08 Feb 19:30: Pollinator conservation – and your lawn To be added to the mailing list to receive the login for Zoom events, email webmaster [at] cnhs.org.uk
Morgan Morrison is researching pollinator conservation at Royal Holloway, University of London.
She will talk about her PhD research which covers all aspects of pollinator conservation, from bees, butterflies and hoverflies to disease, protected areas and citizen science.
Morgan will cover questions about “Are diseases spillover from honeybees to wild bee?” all the way to “How can citizens help pollinators all from the comfort of their lawns?”.
She will also be introducing a citizen science study taking place in summer with which you could help.
To be added to the mailing list to receive the login for Zoom events, email webmaster [at] cnhs.org.uk
- Speaker: Morgan Morrison, Researcher, Royal Holloway, University of London
- Thursday 08 February 2024, 19:30-21:00
- Venue: Main Seminar Room (First Floor) David Attenborough Building, University of Cambridge Pembroke St, Cambridge CB2 3QZ.
- Series: Cambridge Natural History Society; organiser: events.
Thu 15 Feb 18:45: Title to be confirmed To be added to the mailing list to receive the login for Zoom events, email webmaster [at] cnhs.org.uk
Esme Ashe-Jepson, who talked about caterpillars last year, will give another talk – title and details to be confirmed.
To be added to the mailing list to receive the login for Zoom events, email webmaster [at] cnhs.org.uk
- Speaker: Esme Ashe-Jepson
- Thursday 15 February 2024, 18:45-20:30
- Venue: via zoom .
- Series: Cambridge Natural History Society; organiser: events.
Thu 15 Feb 18:45: Title to be confirmed To be added to the mailing list to receive the login for Zoom events, email webmaster [at] cnhs.org.uk
Esme Ashe-Jepson, who talked about caterpillars last year, will give another talk – title and details to be confirmed.
To be added to the mailing list to receive the login for Zoom events, email webmaster [at] cnhs.org.uk
- Speaker: Esme Ashe-Jepson
- Thursday 15 February 2024, 18:45-20:30
- Venue: via zoom .
- Series: Cambridge Natural History Society; organiser: events.
Thu 07 Mar 14:00: BSU Seminar: "Uncertainty Quantification in the Digital Medicine Era" This will be a free hybrid event. To register to attend virtually, please click here: https://cam-ac-uk.zoom.us/meeting/register...
The widespread use of wearable devices and smartphones has revolutionized the field of digital medicine, enabling non-invasive, continuous monitoring of various physiological parameters. This technological advancement is crucial for personalized medical and public health interventions. The data collected in free-living conditions are continuous (functional), collected at second or minute level resolution, and are multilevel, reflecting daily, weekly, and monthly patterns. This data complexity necessitates innovative statistical methods to address challenges like uncertainty quantification in predicting future patient trajectories.
This presentation aims to achieve two primary objectives. First, it examines the impact of digital medicine on routine medical tasks, including disease diagnosis, management, and treatment prescription, with a special focus on diabetes care and physical activity interventions. These areas exemplify the transformative effect of digital medicine. Second, the presentation introduces new statistical approaches developed by the author for quantifying uncertainty in outcome prediction. Tailored to the challenges of digital medicine, these algorithms are based on conformal prediction and Bayesian methods. Their practical applications are demonstrated using data from continuous glucose monitors and accelerometers, showcasing their effectiveness in various modeling tasks such as determining diagnosis, characterization of disease phenotypes, creation of new rules for monitoring physical activity profiles, and establishment of new biomarkers.
This will be a free hybrid event. To register to attend virtually, please click here: https://cam-ac-uk.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAsduitrTotGNZxFmtFPPAx6Jh2LZfCYbV3
- Speaker: Marcos Matabuena, Harvard University
- Thursday 07 March 2024, 14:00-15:00
- Venue: MRC Biostatistics Unit, East Forvie Building, Forvie Site Robinson Way Cambridge CB2 0SR..
- Series: MRC Biostatistics Unit Seminars; organiser: Alison Quenault.
Fri 02 Feb 13:00: Group Discussion - Title to be updated soon
Abstract not available
- Speaker: Speaker to be confirmed
- Friday 02 February 2024, 13:00-14:00
- Venue: FW11, William Gates Building. Zoom link: https://cl-cam-ac-uk.zoom.us/j/4361570789?pwd=Nkl2T3ZLaTZwRm05bzRTOUUxY3Q4QT09&from=addon .
- Series: Energy and Environment Group, Department of CST; organiser: lyr24.
Fri 22 Mar 13:00: The Future of 24/7 Clean Energy driven by AI
Abstract:
Deep decarbonization and rapid electrification of energy will require greater penetration of renewables of energy supply, and electrification of energy demand. As renewables penetration crosses 10-20% of the grid electricity demand (and other supply sources correspondingly adjust), the intermittency and volatility of renewable supply & new electrified demand will increasingly dominate the market. Renewable supply and grid electricity demand needs to be matched through a combination of multiple markets, energy storage and an orchestrated portfolio of flexibility resources. The future of renewables will fundamentally be driven by software and AI on the cloud to manage this transition. This talk will unwrap the various challenges and opportunities around this transition. We will also cover examples of application of multi-modal Generative AI for advanced remote operations, health & safety and multi-lingual knowledge access in the context of problem solving in field operations.
Shivkumar’s Bio:
Shiv is CTO , Energy Industry, Asia at Microsoft. Previously he was Executive General Manager of Growth Offerings at GE Power Conversion responsible for new Line of Business development in e-Mobility, Commercial & Industrial Solar and digital/AI innovations. Earlier he was at IBM Research – India, and the Chief Scientist of IBM Research – Australia. Before IBM , he was a tenured Full Professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY, USA . Shiv has degrees from Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (B.Tech, CS), Ohio State University (MS, PhD) and RPI (Executive MBA ). Shiv is a Distinguished Alumnus Awardee of IIT Madras (2021, recognizing 0.3% of IITM ’s alumni over the years) & Ohio State University (2021), Fellow of the IEEE (2010), Fellow of Indian National Academy of Engineering (2015), ACM Distinguished Scientist (2010), MIT Technology Review TR100 young innovator (1999).
Srinivasan Iyengar’s Bio:
Srinivasan Iyengar is a Senior Program Manager at Microsoft’s Energy Industry Asia Team. Previously he was a Post-doc Researcher at Microsoft Research India Lab. He completed his masters and doctoral studies in Computer Science from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Before that he worked as a researcher at TCS India Innovation Labs. His interests are in energy systems, distributed systems, sensing, IoT, cloud and edge computing.
- Speaker: Dr. Shivkumar Kalyanaraman, CTO, Energy Industry, Asia, Microsoft. // Dr. Srinivasan Iyengar, Senior Program Manager, Asia, Microsoft.
- Friday 22 March 2024, 13:00-14:00
- Venue: FW11, William Gates Building. Zoom link: https://cl-cam-ac-uk.zoom.us/j/4361570789?pwd=Nkl2T3ZLaTZwRm05bzRTOUUxY3Q4QT09&from=addon .
- Series: Energy and Environment Group, Department of CST; organiser: lyr24.
Wed 07 Feb 11:15: Upper bounds on superfluid stiffness and superconducting critical temperature - applications to flat bands, FeSe/STO, cold atoms and connections to quantum geometry
Understanding the material parameters that control the superconducting (SC) transition temperature Tc is a problem of fundamental importance. In many novel superconductors of interest, fluctuations of the phase of the SC order parameter determines Tc, rather than the BCS collapse of the amplitude due to pair breaking. We derive rigorous upper bounds on the superfluid stiffness Ds in terms of the optical conductivity sum-rule, valid in any dimension, essentially controlled by the non-interacting band structure. This in turn leads to rigorous upper bounds on Tc in 2D, which holds irrespective of the form or strength of the pairing interactions, mechanism or order-parameter symmetry. We estimate the upper bounds on Tc for FeSe on SrTiO3, cold atom systems and lattice Hubbard models and find that they are quite close to the maximum observed Tc in these strongly-correlated systems. For magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene, we not only calculated these bounds for lattice models of the flat bands, but we also present rigorous upper bounds on the low energy optical spectral weight that determines the maximum Tc in isolated flat bands in a multi-band system. The latter bounds are directly controlled by the Marzari-Vanderbilt spread functional of the flat band Wannier functions – pointing to a deep connection between the quantum geometry of the flat band eigenstates and the low energy optical response.
[1] Hazra, T., Verma, N. & Randeria, M. Bounds on the Superconducting Transition Temperature: Applications to Twisted Bilayer Graphene and Cold Atoms. Phys. Rev. X 9 , 031049 (2019).
[2] Verma, N., Hazra, T. & Randeria, M. Optical spectral weight, phase stiffness, and Tc bounds for trivial and topological flat band superconductors. PNAS 118 , (2021).
- Speaker: Dr. Tamaghna Hazra, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology
- Wednesday 07 February 2024, 11:15-12:30
- Venue: Mott Seminar Room (531), Cavendish Laboratory, Department of Physics.
- Series: Quantum Matter Seminar; organiser: Malte Grosche.
Tue 20 Feb 17:00: Compiler Testing with Relaxed Memory Models with L. Geeson
Finding bugs is key to the correctness of compilers in wide use today. If the behaviour of a compiled program, as allowed by its architecture memory model, is not a behaviour of the source program under its source model, then there is a bug. This holds for all programs, but we focus on concurrency bugs that occur only with two or more threads of execution. We focus on testing techniques that detect such bugs in C/C++ compilers. We seek a testing technique that automatically covers concurrency bugs up to fixed bounds on program sizes and that scales to find bugs in compiled programs with many lines of code. Otherwise, a testing technique can miss bugs. Unfortunately, the state-of-the-art techniques are yet to satisfy all of these properties. We present the Téléchat compiler testing tool for concurrent programs. Téléchat compiles a concurrent C/C++ program and compares source and compiled program behaviours using source and architecture memory models. We make three claims: Téléchat improves the state-of-the-art at finding bugs in code generation for multi-threaded execution, it is the first public description of a compiler testing tool for concurrency that is deployed in industry, and it is the first tool that takes a significant step towards the desired properties. We provide experimental evidence suggesting Téléchat finds bugs missed by other state-of-the-art techniques, case studies indicating that Téléchat satisfies the properties, and reports of our experience deploying Téléchat in industry regression testing.
- Speaker: Luke Geeson
- Tuesday 20 February 2024, 17:00-18:00
- Venue: SN08, Computer Laboratory, William Gates Building.
- Series: Computer Laboratory Computer Architecture Group Meeting; organiser: Tobias Grosser.
Thu 22 Feb 17:00: Title to be confirmed
Abstract not available
- Speaker: Dr Wenda Li (University of Edinburgh), Artie Khovanov (University of Cambridge), Michael Nedzelsky (Diffblue Ltd)
- Thursday 22 February 2024, 17:00-18:00
- Venue: MR14 Centre for Mathematical Sciences.
- Series: Formalisation of mathematics with interactive theorem provers ; organiser: Anand Rao Tadipatri.
Wed 31 Jan 11:30: Sensory hypersensitivity and poor sleep - understanding neural mechanisms during early development
Poor sleep, sensory hyper-sensitivity and learning delays co-occur in autism (and the general population). In my lab, we aim to delineate causal mechanisms linking these phenotypic trats, in development. I will present findings from an infant sibling study (BASIS) that show early emerging associations between neural measures of sensory processing and infant sleep and new findings from the Snoose study, which uses polysomnography (EEG) to investigate individual variation in how infant sleep adapts to environmental noise.
- Speaker: Teodora Gliga, University of East Anglia
- Wednesday 31 January 2024, 11:30-12:30
- Venue: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81268825017?pwd=dndNSE9selNDTktIUGNNejZKZDFVUT09 .
- Series: ARClub Talks; organiser: Simon Braschi.
Wed 07 Feb 13:30: Bigger Picture Talks @ CEB - Pre-Procedural Planning of Transcatheter Heart Valve Interventions with Clinical Imaging and in silico Modelling
The extensive use of transcatheter devices has resulted in a paradigm shift in the clinical workflow for structural heart intervention. Pre-procedural planning, procedural guidance and follow-up care are critical to the success of these interventions. With a growing number of transcatheter heart valves available and a host of adverse outcomes to avoid, current decision-making processes are guided by clinical imaging, with 3D printing and image-based virtual simulation being recently adopted. However, these modalities cannot adequately capture or predict the dynamic interaction between implanted transcatheter devices and native anatomy. Thus, in silico models can be integrated as an additional tool to support the clinical decision-making processes. This lecture will provide an overview of recent advances in patient-specific in silico modelling of THV interventions and highlight the potential for clinical imaging with simulations to aid clinicians in patient selection and planning for transcatheter replacements of the aortic, mitral, and tricuspid valves.
- Speaker: Shelly Singh-Gryzbon
- Wednesday 07 February 2024, 13:30-14:30
- Venue: Lecture Theatre 1, Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, West Cambridge Site.
- Series: Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology; organiser: Alex Wilby.
Thu 01 Feb 13:00: CONTROLLING CAPSID SELF-ASSEMBLY IN VIRUS AND DE NOVO DESIGNED DNA ORIGAMI SYSTEMS
Abstract not available
- Speaker: Mike Hagan - Brandeis University
- Thursday 01 February 2024, 13:00-14:00
- Venue: Lecture Theatre 2, Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, West Cambridge Site.
- Series: Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology; organiser: Alex Wilby.
Fri 02 Feb 15:00: The intersection of design, engineering and craft - what we learn by collaboration
Structural engineering spans a wide spectrum of practice, and the work at Cake Industries is very much at the “applied” end, where theory becomes real. Based on several key projects this talk will endeavour to look at how working right at the intersections of design, engineering and making can lead to developments in what is possible.
- Speaker: David Knight, Cake Industries
- Friday 02 February 2024, 15:00-16:00
- Venue: CivEng Seminar Room (1-33) (Civil Engineering Building).
- Series: Engineering Department Structures Research Seminars; organiser: Callum White.
Mon 12 Feb 13:00: The Influence of Lateral Spreading upon Solitary Wave Formation by Internal Tides
Abstract not available
- Speaker: Bruce Sutherland, University of Alberta
- Monday 12 February 2024, 13:00-14:00
- Venue: MR5, CMS.
- Series: Geophysical and Environmental Processes; organiser: Prof. John R. Taylor.
Wed 01 May 14:30: Sequence-based determinants of aggregation within protein condensates
Complex cellular landscapes of proteins include the dense, liquid-like droplet state and the solid-like amyloid state, in addition to the native state. The amyloid state, which is often pathological, can be formed through the deposition pathway from the native state and through the condensation pathway from the droplet state. I present a uniform framework to describe both pathways and identify mutations biasing towards these aggregation mechanisms. The droplet landscape model is a sequence-based, generic approach that simultaneously estimates the probability of droplet formation and the likelihood of state conversion. The method exploits that the interactions driving the droplet state sample disordered binding modes, whereas those governing the amyloid state sample ordered binding modes, which can simultaneously be estimated from sequence without information on the interaction partners. In addition, we predict the multiplicity of binding modes, that a given protein region can sample under different cellular conditions. I will demonstrate the application of the droplet landscape approach to both pathological and functional aggregates, in particular predicting mutations associated with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and those facilitating muscle lineage development.
References M. Vendruscolo, M Fuxreiter (2022) Protein Condensation Diseases: Therapeutic Opportunities. Nat Commun 13, 5500, doi: 10.1038/s41467-022-32940-7 Hatos A, Tosatto SCE , Vendruscolo M, Fuxreiter M. (2022) FuzDrop on AlphaFold: visualizing the sequence-dependent propensity of liquid-liquid phase separation and aggregation of proteins. Nucleic Acids Res. 50(W1), W337 -44 Gönczi M., Teixeira JMC , Barrera-Vilarmau S., Mediani L. , Antoniani F. , Nagy TM, Fehér K., Ráduly Z., Ambrus V., Tőzsér J., Barta E., Kövér KE., Csernoch L., Carra S. , Fuxreiter M. (2023) Alternatively spliced exon regulates context-dependent MEF2D higher-order assembly during myogenesis Nature Communications 14, 1329. Horvath A, Vendruscolo M, Fuxreiter M. (2022) Sequence-based Prediction of the Cellular Toxicity Associated with Amyloid Aggregation within Protein Condensates Biochemistry 61, 2461-2469.
- Speaker: Professor Monika Fuxreiter, University of Padova
- Wednesday 01 May 2024, 14:30-15:30
- Venue: Unilever Lecture Theatre, Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry.
- Series: Theory - Chemistry Research Interest Group; organiser: Lisa Masters.
Mon 29 Jan 13:30: Bigger Picture Talks @ CEB - Pre-Procedural Planning of Transcatheter Heart Valve Interventions with Clinical Imaging and in silico Modelling
The extensive use of transcatheter devices has resulted in a paradigm shift in the clinical workflow for structural heart intervention. Pre-procedural planning, procedural guidance and follow-up care are critical to the success of these interventions. With a growing number of transcatheter heart valves available and a host of adverse outcomes to avoid, current decision-making processes are guided by clinical imaging, with 3D printing and image-based virtual simulation being recently adopted. However, these modalities cannot adequately capture or predict the dynamic interaction between implanted transcatheter devices and native anatomy. Thus, in silico models can be integrated as an additional tool to support the clinical decision-making processes. This lecture will provide an overview of recent advances in patient-specific in silico modelling of THV interventions and highlight the potential for clinical imaging with simulations to aid clinicians in patient selection and planning for transcatheter replacements of the aortic, mitral, and tricuspid valves.
- Speaker: Shelly Singh-Gryzbon
- Monday 29 January 2024, 13:30-14:30
- Venue: Lecture Theatre 1, Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, West Cambridge Site.
- Series: Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology; organiser: Alex Wilby.
Direct conversion of thermal energy to stored electrochemical energy via a self-charging pyroelectrochemical cell
DOI: 10.1039/D3EE03497F, PaperTim Kowalchik, Fariha Khan, Danielle Horlacher, Shad Roundy, Roseanne Warren
The concept of a pyroelectrochemical cell (PEC) as a self-charging power source for Internet of Things (IoT) sensors is explored through experimentation and simulation.
To cite this article before page numbers are assigned, use the DOI form of citation above.
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