Seminars

Upcoming Seminars / Seminars This Week



Fri 09/30/22 11:10 am	Rosenstiel 118
Biochemistry-Biophysics Friday Lunchtime Pizza Talks
Bo Li (UNC Chapel Hill, Department of Chemistry, Department of Microbiology and Immunology)
Mighty Biosynthetic Chemistry of Small Molecules in Bacteria
This is a hybrid talk. For Zoom login info, please email Maria Berlis at mariaberlis@brandeis.edu
Hosted by Isaac Krauss
Sponsored by: Biochemistry and Biophysics PhD Program
Fri 09/30/22 12:45 pm	Gerstenzang 123/Online
Molecular and Cell Biology & Neuroscience Student Seminars
Amy Scalera (Rodal Lab)
Jenna Harris (Kadener Lab)
https://brandeis.zoom.us/j/99811073249
Mon 10/03/22 11:15 am	Gerstenzang 124/Online
Neurobiology Journal Club
Mingxin Ding (Jadhav Lab)
Ref: Dopamine subsystems that track internal states
Regis Shanley, Ph.D. (Turrigiano Lab)
Ref: NDNF Neurons in layer 1 gain-modulate whole cortical columns according to an animal's behavioral state
https://brandeis.zoom.us/j/92707996384 For more info, please contact Cathy Lauinger at clauinger@brandeis.edu
Sponsored by: Neuroscience Interdepartmental Program
Mon 10/03/22 4:10 pm	Gerstenzang 121
Chemistry Department Colloquium
Sarah Siska Co (AbbVie)
Improving process understanding in late-stage development at AbbVie
Hosted by Isaac Krauss
Tue 10/04/22 11:10 am	Abelson 333
Quantum/Gravity Seminar
Åsmund Folkestad (MIT)
Tue 10/04/22 12:45 pm	Gerstenzang 123/Online
M.R. Bauer Distinguished Guest Lecture Series
Mani Ramaswami, PhD (Professor of Neurogenetics, Genetics, Director of TCIN, Trinity Institute of Neurosciences (TCIN), Director of TCIN, Zoology Trinity College Dublin)
Inhibitory engrams: molecular mechanisms of habituation and flexible cognition
https://brandeis.zoom.us/j/97234046874 For more information or the zoom password , please contact Cathy Lauinger at clauinger@brandeis.edu
Hosted by Leslie C. Griffith
Sponsored by: Biology Department, Neuroscience Interdepartmental Program
Tue 10/04/22 2:15 pm	Goldsmith 300
Topology Seminar
Beibei Liu (MIT)
The critical exponent: old and new
The critical exponent is an important numerical invariant of discrete groups acting on negatively curved Hadamard manifolds, Gromov hyperbolic spaces, and higher-rank symmetric spaces. In this talk, I will focus on discrete groups acting on hyperbolic spaces (i.e., Kleinian groups), which is a family of important examples of these three types of spaces. In particular, I will review the classical result relating the critical exponent to the Hausdorff dimension using the Patterson-Sullivan theory and introduce new results about Kleinian groups with small or large critical exponents.
Hosted by Carolyn Abbott, Ruth Charney, Kiyoshi Igusa and Daniel Ruberman
Thu 10/06/22 12:15 pm	/Online
New England Dynamics and Number Theory Seminar
Juno Seong (UC San Diego)
An avoidance principle and Margulis functions for expanding translates of unipotent orbits
Avoidance principles -- quantifying how much time trajectories avoid certain subsets of the ambient space -- have been fruitful in the study of dynamical systems. We prove an avoidance principle for expanding translates of unipotent orbits for some semisimple homogeneous spaces. In addition, we prove a quantitative isolation result of closed orbits and give an upper bound on the number of closed orbits of bounded volume. The proof of our results relies on the construction of a Margulis function and the theory of finite dimensional representations of semisimple Lie groups. This is joint work with Anthony Sanchez.
https://brandeis.zoom.us/j/93966619553?pwd=ZWZDOFVRbGd1di9mOXN2SFFqV1cyQT09#success
Hosted by Dmitry Kleinbock and Lam Pham
Fri 10/07/22 11:10 am	Rosenstiel 118
Biochemistry-Biophysics Friday Lunchtime Pizza Talks
Douglas Theobald (Brandeis University)
Ancestral Protein Resurrection Methods Reveal Macromolecular Evolution and Mechanism
This is a hybrid talk. For Zoom login info, please email mariaberlis@brandeis.edu
Hosted by Douglas Theobald
Sponsored by: Biochemistry and Biophysics PhD Program
Fri 10/07/22 12:45 pm	Gerstenzang 123/Online
Molecular and Cell Biology & Neuroscience Student Seminars
Suhaily Penix (Bradshaw Lab)
Aishwarya Krishnamoorthy (Kadener Lab)
https://brandeis.zoom.us/j/99811073249
Tue 10/11/22 11:10 am	Abelson 229
Quantum/Gravity Seminar
Dan Carney (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory)
Comments on hunting the graviton
Detecting "a graviton" is an obviously interesting goal, if it is possible. Dyson has given some compelling arguments that this might be impossible. I'll review his arguments and suggest two possible alternatives. One is that it may be possible to detect entanglement generated between mesoscopic objects through their gravitational interactions; I'll review some proposals for this and discuss to what extent this is related to the existence of gravitons. The other is a more direct counter example to Dyson's argument, using certain axion detector architectures repurposed as graviton detectors.
Tue 10/11/22 12:45 pm	Gerstenzang 123/Online
Joint Biology/Neuroscience Colloquium
Abhishek Shrivastava, PhD (School of Life Sciences, The Biodesign Institute , Center for Fundamental and Applied Microbiomics, Center for Biological Physics, Arizona State University)
A versatile molecular motor that shapes host-microbiota interactions and powers bacterial gliding
https://brandeis.zoom.us/j/97234046874 For more information or the zoom password, please contact Cathy Lauinger at clauinger@brandeis.edu
Hosted by Alexandre Bisson
Sponsored by: Biology Department, Neuroscience Interdepartmental Program
Wed 10/12/22 11:15 am	Gerstenzang 124
Molecular Genetics Journal Club
Neyara Ferreira (Haber Lab)
Emily Stadnicki (Bradshaw Lab)
Thu 10/13/22 12:15 pm	Virtual
New England Dynamics and Number Theory Seminar
Chris Lutsko (Rutgers University)
TBA
Hosted by Dmitry Kleinbock and Lam Pham
Thu 10/13/22 1:15 pm	Rosenstiel 118
Special Seminar
Scott Hawley, PhD (Faculty and Dean Emeritus, The Graduate School of the Stowers Institute)
Lessons From Comparative Genetics: The Synaptonemal Complex in Flies, Silkworms, and Mice
For more information, please contact Cathy Lauinger at clauinger@brandeis.edu
Hosted by James E. Haber
Sponsored by: Haber Research Group
Thu 10/13/22 4:10 pm	Gerstenzang 121
Chemistry Department Colloquium
Eyal Ron (Sensei Ventures)
Hosted by Emily Ziperman, Barry Snider
Fri 10/14/22 12:45 pm	Gerstenzang 123/Online
Molecular and Cell Biology & Neuroscience Student Seminars
Ryan Kirk (Nelson Lab)
Melissa Seman (Ragunathan Lab)
https://brandeis.zoom.us/j/99811073249
Tue 10/18/22 4:10 pm	Gerstenzang 121
Chemistry Department Colloquium
Michael Timko (Worcester Polytechnic Institute)
Hosted by Klaus Schmidt-Rohr
Wed 10/19/22 11:15 am	Gerstenzang 124
Molecular Genetics Journal Club
Sam Bates (Sengupta Lab)
Sayan Biswas (Marr Lab)
Thu 10/20/22 11:15 am	Volen 201
Computational Neuroscience Journal Club
Thiago Burghi (Control Group, Department of Engineering, Cambridge University)
Online estimation of biophysical neural networks
Hosted by Paul Miller
Sponsored by: Neuroscience Interdepartmental Program
Thu 10/20/22 12:20 pm	Rapaporte Treasure Hall, Goldfarb Library
Psychology Department Colloquium
Matt Nassar (Brown University)
Dynamic Representations for Behavioral Flexibility
People flexibly adjust their use of information according to context. The same piece of information, for example the unexpected outcome of an action, might be highly influential on future behavior in one situation -- but utterly ignored in another one. Bayesian models have provided insight into why people display this sort of behavior, and even identified potential neural mechanisms that link to behavior in specific tasks and environments, but to date have fallen short of providing broader mechanistic insights that generalize across tasks or statistical environments. Here I'll examine the possibility that such broader insights might be gained through careful consideration of task structure. I'll show that we can think about a large number of sequential tasks as requiring the same inference problem -- that is to infer the latent states of the world and the parameters of those latent states -- with the primary distinctions within the class defined by transition structure. Then I'll talk about how a neural network that updates latent states according to a known transition structure and learns "parameters" of the world for each latent state can explain adaptive learning behavior across environments and provide the first insights into neural correlates of adaptive learning across environments. This model generates internal signals that identify the need for latent state updating, which maps onto previous observations made in pupil dilations and P300 responses across different task environments. I will also discuss an experiment that we are currently setting up to test the idea that these signals might reflect a latent state update signal, with a focus on relationships to learning and perception. Finally, I discuss how deviations from normative structure learning might give rise to aberrant belief updating in mental illness.
Fri 10/21/22 11:10 am	Rosenstiel 118
Biochemistry-Biophysics Friday Lunchtime Pizza Talks
Seychelle Vos (MIT)
Defining How Sequence and Local Chromatin Context Regulate Gene Expression
This is a hybrid talk. For Zoom login info, please contact Maria Berlis at mariaberlis@brandeis.edu.
Hosted by Jeff Gelles
Sponsored by: Biochemistry and Biophysics PhD Program
Fri 10/21/22 12:45 pm	Gerstenzang 123/Online
Molecular and Cell Biology & Neuroscience Student Seminars
Melda Buyukozturk (Birren Lab)
Dan Svedberg (Katz Lab)
https://brandeis.zoom.us/j/99811073249
Mon 10/24/22 11:15 am	Gerstenzang 124/Online
Neurobiology Journal Club
Mikaela Laine, PhD (Shansky Lab, Department of Psychology, Northeastern University)
Lessons from eavesdropping on rats: Sex differences in rat ultrasonic vocalizations during fear conditioning and extinction
https://brandeis.zoom.us/j/92707996384 For more info, please contact Cathy Lauinger at clauinger@brandeis.edu
Sponsored by: Neuroscience Interdepartmental Program
Mon 10/24/22 4:10 pm	Virtual
Chemistry Department Colloquium
Joseph Subotnik (University of Pennsylvania)
Hosted by Rebecca Gieseking
Tue 10/25/22 11:10 am	Abelson 229
Quantum/Gravity Seminar
Eugene Tang (MIT)
Tue 10/25/22 12:45 pm	Gerstenzang 123/Online
Joint Biology/Neuroscience Colloquium
Ames Sutton Hickey, PhD (College of Liberal Arts, Psychology and Neuroscience, Temple University)
https://brandeis.zoom.us/j/97234046874 For more information or the zoom password, please contact Cathy Lauinger at clauinger@brandeis.edu
Sponsored by: Biology Department, Neuroscience Interdepartmental Program
Wed 10/26/22 11:15 am	Gerstenzang 124
Molecular Genetics Journal Club
Job Dekker (Howard Hughes Medical Institute and University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School)
Folding chromosomes without knotting them
Speaker Bio: Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Joseph J. Byrne Chair in Biomedical Research Professor, Department of Systems Biology University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School
Thu 10/27/22 4 pm	Gerstenzang 123
Gabbay Award Lectures in Biotechnology and Medicine
Jan Steyaert, Ph.D. (Director, VIB-VUB center for Structural Biology, VIB-Vrije Universiteit Brussel)
Engineered nanobodies for structural biology and drug discovery
Hosted by Dagmar Ringe
Fri 10/28/22 12:45 pm	Gerstenzang 123/Online
Molecular and Cell Biology & Neuroscience Student Seminars
Jordan Breffle (Miller Lab)
Amanda Ames (Ragunathan Lab)
https://brandeis.zoom.us/j/99811073249
Tue 11/08/22 12:45 pm	Gerstenzang 123/Online
Joint Biology/Neuroscience Colloquium
Ethan Greenblatt, PhD (Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Faculty of Medicine, Life Sciences Centre, The University of British Columbia)
FMR1 and translation regulation
https://brandeis.zoom.us/j/97234046874 For more information or the zoom password, please contact Cathy Lauinger at clauinger@brandeis.edu
Hosted by Steven DeLuca
Sponsored by: Biology Department, Neuroscience Interdepartmental Program
Tue 11/15/22 12:45 pm	Gerstenzang 123/Online
Joint Biology/Neuroscience Colloquium
Vijay Ramani, PhD (Gladstone Institute for Data Science & Biotechnology, UCSF Department of Biochemistry & Biophysics)
Mapping nucleosomes using SAMOSA and SAMOSA ChAAT
https://brandeis.zoom.us/j/97234046874 For more information or the zoom password, please contact Cathy Lauinger at clauinger@brandeis.edu
Hosted by Kaushik Ragunathan
Sponsored by: Biology Department, Neuroscience Interdepartmental Program
Tue 11/29/22 12:45 pm	Gerstenzang 123/Online
M.R. Bauer Distinguished Guest Lecture Series
Xiaowei Zhuang, PhD (Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, David B. Arnold Jr. Professor of Science, Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Professor of Physics)
Spatially resolved single-cell genomics and cell atlases of brain tissues
https://brandeis.zoom.us/j/97234046874 For more information or the zoom password, please contact Cathy Lauinger at clauinger@brandeis.edu
Hosted by James E. Haber
Sponsored by: Biology Department, Neuroscience Interdepartmental Program