Seminars

Upcoming Seminars / Seminars This Week



Mon 9/16/19 12 noon	Gerstenzang 121
Neurobiology Journal Club
Brian Cary (Turrigiano Lab)
Conserved cell types with divergent features in human versus mouse cortex
Chenghao Liu (Katz/Nelson Lab)
FactorNet: A deep learning framework for predicting cell type specific transcription factor binding from nucleotide-resolution sequential data
Mon 9/16/19 3:40 pm	Gerstenzang 121
Chemistry Department Colloquium
Darrell Irvine (MIT)
Engineering Immune Recognition for Vaccines against Infectious Disease and Cancer
Hosted by Bing Xu
Tue 9/17/19 11 am	Abelson 307
String Theory Seminar
Djordje Radicevic (Brandeis University)
Gauge Theories with Nonstandard Gauge Constraints
Pure Yang-Mills theory obeys a local constraint given by the Gauss law div E = 0. Alternative gauge constraints are known to exist: the most notable example is provided by Chern-Simons theory. However, detailed explorations of theories with nonstandard gauge constraints in the UV (e.g. on a lattice) have not been performed until very recently, when their importance was affirmed on several different fronts. In this talk I will discuss two new classes of nonstandard gauge theories. The first class involves theories in arbitrary dimension that can be shown to dualize to theories of ordinary fermions (these are higher-dimensional exact bosonization dualities). The second class involves theories of fractons, pioneered by condensed matter and quantum information communities, which are some of the most interesting examples of gapped theories not described by any kind of conventional topological order.
Hosted by HEGT Group
Tue 9/17/19 12:30 pm	Gerstenzang 121
Joint Biology/Neuroscience Colloquium (WISI Hosted Speaker)
Rebecca Shansky (Northeastern University - College of Science )
Sex differences in fear processing
Hosted by WISI
Tue 9/17/19 3:30 pm	Goldsmith 226
Combinatorics Seminar
Christian Gaetz (MIT)
A combinatorial duality and the Sperner property for the weak order
A poset is Sperner if it's largest antichain is no larger than it's largest rank. In the 1980's, Stanley used the Hard-Lefschetz Theorem to prove the Sperner property for strong Bruhat orders on Weyl groups. I will describe joint work with Yibo Gao in which we prove Stanley's conjecture that the weak Bruhat order on the symmetric group is also Sperner, by exhibiting a combinatorially-defined representation of sl_2 respecting the structure of the weak and strong orders. I will explain how this representation gives rise to a combinatorial duality between the weak and strong Bruhat orders and leads to a strong order analogue of Macdonald's reduced word identity for Schubert polynomials. Time permitting, I'll also discuss some formulas for weighted chain enumeration in the strong order which generalize work of Stembridge.
Hosted by Prof. Olivier Bernadi and Duncan Levear
Tue 9/17/19 4 pm	Abelson 131
Physics Department Colloquium
Matthew Headrick (Brandeis University)
Gravity, Entanglement, and Bit Threads
In trying to understand quantum gravity at a fundamental level, one of the most confusing questions is where the degrees of freedom are. So-called holographic dualities help with this question, by showing that certain quantum gravity theories are equivalent to conventional quantum field theories, in which we understand in principle where the degrees of freedom are and how they interact. Using such dualities, a new way of understanding entanglement in quantum gravity, involving so-called "bit threads", has recently been developed. From this point of view, space becomes a kind of channel for carrying entanglement of fundamental degrees of freedom. We will explain what holographic dualities are, what bit threads are, and what they might tell us about the nature of space in quantum gravity.
Thu 9/19/19 11 am	Volen 201
Computational Neuroscience Journal Club
Daniel Powell (Marder Lab)
Interactions between two rhythmic circuits with distinct periods are maintained over a range of temperatures
Pizza will be served.
Thu 9/19/19 12 noon	Gerstenzang 121
Molecular Genetics Journal Club
Joyce Rigal (Marr Lab)
Heterochromatin protein 1a functions for piRNA biogenesis predominantly from pericentric and telomeric regions in Drosophila
Julie Klaric (Lovett Lab)
Acoel genome reveals the regulatory landscape of whole-body regeneration
Thu 9/19/19 3 pm	Goldsmith 226
Dynamics and Number Theory
Lam Pham (Brandeis University)
Expansion spectral gaps in Lie groups
I will survey recent results on various forms of expansion in groups. This is an old topic rooted in Lie theory and representation theory with many deep connections to number theory, geometry, dynamics, and even computing. I will present classical constructions due to Margulis, Kazhdan, and Lubotzky-Phillips-Sarnak and explain the breakthrough work of Bourgain and Gamburd on expansion in thin groups. Finally, I will present related works on improvements and generalizations of the Tits alternative and Kazhdan's Property (T). The talk will be self-contained, with no background assumed.
Hosted by Profs. Dmitry Kleinbock and Lam Pham
Thu 9/19/19 4 pm	Abelson 229
MRSEC Seminar
Douglas Holmes (Boston University)
Functional Kirigami Mechanical Metamaterials for Actuators, Muscles, and Grippers
It is far easier to bend an object than it is to stretch it, and so how does one design thin structures capable of stretching and adopting complex shapes? In recent years, scientists have used cuts in thin sheets to provide local regions that can easily deform. Termed kirigami, in reference to the ancient Japanese art of folding and cutting paper, kirigami-based mechanical metamaterials have provided a simple way to to endow a generic material with extraordinary properties. Lattice cuts, in which cuts are oriented perpendicular to the stretching direction, provide a simple way to enhance the stretchability of a thin sheet. We show that certain lattice configurations are more stretchable than others, while certain configurations produce an array of bistable unit cells. The bistability provides a means to tune the stiffness of the structure in situ, while also providing a means for mechanical memory. We demonstrate the how to switch between stable states using magnetic actuation. Lattice cuts on a curved sheets, i.e. kirigami shells, enable additional functionality. The natural curvature of the sheet causes the bistable lattices to curve together and close around an object, which enables the kirigami shells to act as soft robotic grippers. Finally, non-lattice cuts open up a range of actuation possibilities. Coupling these soft rotation modes with stiff lift modes enables us to generate kirigami linear actuators, that exhibit pitch, yaw, roll, and lift in response to uniaxial stretching. The underlying buckling mechanism is independent of thickness to a first order approximation, and thus these results translate down to 2D materials such as graphene and MoS2, as we demonstrate with MD simulations.
Hosted by John Berezney
Thu 9/19/19 4 pm	Abelson 333
Dark Universe Seminar
TBA
TBA
Hosted by Bjoern Penning and Marcelle Soares-Santos
Fri 9/20/19 9:30 am	Shapiro Campus Center Theater
New England Complex Fluids Workshop
Wim M. van Rees (MIT)
Simulation and inverse-design of thin shape-shifting structures
Hosted by Seth Fraden
Fri 9/20/19 10:15 am	Shapiro Campus Center Theater
New England Complex Fluids Workshop
Allyson Sgro (Boston University)
Coordinating multicellular biological behaviors through intracellular signaling
Hosted by Seth Fraden
Fri 9/20/19 12:30 pm	Gerstenzang 123
Molecular and Cell Biology & Neuroscience Student Seminars
Michael Hobin (Griffith Lab)
Ryan Young (Jadhav Lab)
Pizza will be served
Fri 9/20/19 3 pm	Shapiro Campus Center Theater
New England Complex Fluids Workshop
Tal Cohen (MIT)
Growth, instability, and failure: bringing order into the chaos of natural phenomena
Hosted by Seth Fraden
Fri 9/20/19 3:45 pm	Shapiro Campus Center Theater
New England Complex Fluids Workshop
Daniel Harris (Brown University)
Hydrodynamic mechanisms for particle aggregation at fluid interfaces
Hosted by Seth Fraden
Mon 9/23/19 12 noon	Gerstenzang 121
Neurobiology Journal Club
Claire Symanski (Jadhav Lab)
Hippocampal sharp-wave ripples linked to visual episodic recollection in humans
Brian Lane (Turrigiano Lab)
Increased Excitation-Inhibition Ratio Stabilizes Synapse and Circuit Excitability in Four Autism Mouse Models
Tue 9/24/19 11 am	Abelson 307
String Theory Seminar
Xi Yin (Harvard University)
TBA
Hosted by HEGT Group
Tue 9/24/19 12:30 pm	Gerstenzang 121
Joint Biology/Neuroscience Colloquium
Lorraine Symington (Department of Microbiology & ImmunologyColumbia University Irving Medical Center)
Role of the Mre11 Complex in Maintaining Genome Integrity
Tue 9/24/19 3 pm	Rapaporte Treasure Hall, Goldfarb Library
Meet the Author
Charlotte Nassim
Author of LESSONS FROM THE LOBSTER: EVE MARDER’S WORK IN NEUROSCIENCE, in conversation with Eve Marder
Are you interested in a career as a science writer? Curious about how this book arose? Nassim will provide her story as a writer and provide insights into the process she used to write a book to encourage young women to embark on a career in science.
Tue 9/24/19 4 pm	Abelson 131
Physics Department Colloquium
Daniel J. Cohen (Princeton University)
Crowd Control: manipulating group dynamics in living, cellular systems
Tissues are wonderfully complex communities of soft, living agents. Emergent behaviors arising from cell-cell interactions contribute to critical behaviors such as collective motion, healing, and coordinated growth. Tools that can harness or bias these processes allow us a new way to manipulate living tissue dynamics with broad fundamental and biomedical applications. Our work draws from soft matter biophysics, swarm dynamics, and engineering to develop new experimental approaches to programmatically bias key collective cell behaviors--effectively allowing us to ‘herd' cells. I will discuss two of our core approaches--Outside-In steering of collective cell migration, and Inside-Out guidance of cellular activity. In the case of Outside-In control, we apply an external stimulus in the form of a DC electric field to a population of cells to induce migration through an obscure phenomenon known as ‘electrotaxis'. Our latest electric bioreactor allows us to literally program collective cell migration. We hope to someday use this to accelerate healing processes. For Inside-Out control, we flip the paradigm and focus on mimicking an agent in the group (e.g. a cell). Here, we use a cell-mimetic biomaterial that can infiltrate a tissue to manipulate growth dynamics or spy on the tissue from within. So far, we have demonstrated successful integration with epithelial and cardiac tissues, and we are now exploring the broader space of cell-cell interactions for new targets that we hope will help improve implant integration and efficacy.
Hosted by Guillaume Duclos
Wed 9/25/19 12 noon	International Lounge, Usdan
Psychology Department Colloquium
Kathrin Ohla (Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Forschungszentrum Jülich, Germany)
TBD
Hosted by Don Katz
Thu 9/26/19 12 noon	Gerstenzang 121
Molecular Genetics Journal Club
Rey Aguilar Lopez (Goode Lab)
Distinct functions of diaphanous-related formins regulate HIV-1 uncoating and transport
Nikita Alimov (Goode Lab)
Excised linear introns regulate growth in yeast
Thu 9/26/19 4 pm	Abelson 229
MRSEC Seminar
Ashwin Gopinath (MIT)
DNA origami: The bridge to the bottom
Conventional top-down nanofabrication, over the last six decades, has enabled almost all the complex electronic, optical and micro-fluidic devices that form the foundation of our society. Parallel efforts, exploring bottom-up self-assembly processes, have also enabled design and synthesis of structures like quantum dots, carbon nanotubes and unique bio-molecules that possess technologically relevant proper- ties unachievable top-down. While both these approaches have independently matured, ongoing efforts to create "hybrid nanostructures" combining both strategies, has been fraught with technical challenges. The main roadblock is the absence of a scalable method to deterministically organize components built bottom-up within top-down nanofabricated structures. In this talk, I will first introduce a directed self-assembly technique that utilizes DNA origami as a molecular adaptor to modularly position, and orient, bottom-up nano-components (like quantum dots, light emitters and proteins) within top-down nanofabricated devices. I will then present experimental results demonstrating the utility of the technique to achieved absolute, arbitrarily scalable, control over the integration of discrete emitters inside optical devices. Finally, I conclude by presenting my vision of how a DNA origami based bridge between top-down and bottom-up nanofabrication can enable a range of highly transformative, and functional, devices. Specifically, I will present data demonstrating arrays of single-photon sources, method for extremely economical nanotexturing as well as a modular molecular interface between biology and solid-state.
Hosted by Ben Rogers
Thu 9/26/19 4 pm	Abelson 333
Dark Universe Seminar
Heidi Wu (Ohio State University)
TBA
Hosted by Bjoern Penning and Marcelle Soares-Santos
Fri 9/27/19 12:30 pm	Gerstenzang 123
Molecular and Cell Biology & Neuroscience Student Seminars
NO PIZZA TALK - VOLEN RETREAT
Mon 9/30/19 12 noon	Gerstenzang 121
Neurobiology Journal Club
NO NEURO JC - HOLIDAY
Tue 10/1/19 11 am	Abelson 307
String Theory Seminar
Shu-Heng Shao (Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton University)
Anomalies and Bounds on Charged Operators
Hosted by HEGT Group
Tue 10/1/19 12:30 pm	Gerstenzang 121
Joint Biology/Neuroscience Colloquium
NO SEMINAR - Rosh Hashanah
Wed 10/2/19 4 pm	TBA
Gabbay Award Lectures in Biotechnology and Medicine
Dario Campana (National University of Singapore)
Transforming the treatment of childhood leukemia with immune cells
Michel Sadelain (Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center)
TBA
Hosted by Dagmar Ringe
Thu 10/3/19 12 noon	Gerstenzang 121
Neurobiology Journal Club (Postdoc IPRC Talk)
Marie Suver (Postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Kathy Nagel's labNYU)
(Brandeis Monday)
Thu 10/3/19 12 noon	Gerstenzang 121
Molecular Genetics Journal Club
NO MGJC - BRANDEIS MONDAY
Thu 10/3/19 3:40 pm	Gerstenzang 121
Chemistry Department Colloquium
Matthew Bio (Snapdragon)
Mighty Machines; efficient chemistry manufacturing enabled by continuous technology
Hosted by Isaac Krauss
Fri 10/4/19 11:15 am	Rosenstiel 118
Biochemistry-Biophysics Friday Lunchtime Pizza Talks
Amy Keating (MIT)
Exploring landscapes of protein interaction specificity
Hosted by B&B PhD Students
Fri 10/4/19 12:30 pm	Gerstenzang 123
Molecular and Cell Biology & Neuroscience Student Seminars
Emmanuel Rivera-Rodriguez (Griffith Lab)
Wenbo Tang (Jadhav Lab)
Pizza will be served
Mon 10/7/19	Gerstenzang 121
Chemistry Department Colloquium
James Lewis (West Virginia University )
Hosted by Rebecca Gieseking
Mon 10/7/19 12 noon	Gerstenzang 121
Neurobiology Journal Club
Linnea Herzog (Jadhav/Katz Labs)
Michael Hobin (Griffith Lab)
Tue 10/8/19 11 am	Abelson 307
String Theory Seminar
TBA
Hosted by HEGT Group
Tue 10/8/19 12:30 pm	Gerstenzang 121
M.R. Bauer Colloquium Series
Surya Ganguli (Stanford )
TBA
Hosted by Shantanu Jadhav
Tue 10/8/19 4 pm	Abelson 131
Physics Department Colloquium
Pierre-Thomas Brun (Princeton University)
Architecting soft functional materials with instabilities
The talk is concerned with the directed control of fluidic instabilities to program shapes. While instabilities are traditionally regarded as a route towards failure in engineering, I aim to follow a different path; taming fluidic instabilities and harnessing the patterns and structures they naturally form. This methodology capitalizes on the inherent periodicity, scalability, versatility and robustness of mechanical instabilities. This new design paradigm -- building with instabilities -- calls for an improved understanding of instabilities and pattern formation in complex media. While stability analysis is a classic topic in mechanics, little is known on the so called inverse problem: finding the optimal set of initial conditions and interactions that will be transmuted into a target shape without direct external intervention. While the epicenter of the research is fundamental, utilizing instabilities to structure soft materials opens new research directions in the study of the behavior and deformations of architected soft materials, inspired by natural soft-materials that self-assemble into well defined structures to display remarkable properties. More broadly, the talk is rooted on the basis of recognizing model experiments as a valuable and powerful tool for discovery and exploration, in turn seeding the development of formal and predictive models.
Hosted by Guillaume Duclos
Thu 10/10/19 11 am	Volen 201
Computational Neuroscience Journal Club
Tatsuo Okubo (Wilson Lab, Harvard Medical School)
Neural mechanisms underlying the computation of wind direction in Drosophila
Pizza will be served
Hosted by Hillary Rodgers
Thu 10/10/19 12 noon	Gerstenzang 121
Molecular Genetics Journal Club
Siobhan Gartland (Marr Lab)
Danielle Gallagher (Haber Lab)
Thu 10/10/19 4 pm	Abelson 333
Dark Universe Seminar
Rana Ezzeddine (MIT)
TBA
Hosted by Bjoern Penning and Marcelle Soares-Santos
Thu 10/10/19 4:30 pm	Goldsmith 317
Joint Mathematics Colloquium
Benjamin Schweinhart (Ohio State University)
TBA
Hosted by Prof. Mark Adler
Fri 10/11/19 12:30 pm	Gerstenzang 123
Molecular and Cell Biology & Neuroscience Student Seminars
Katie Kimbrell (Paradis/Katz Labs)
Mara Rue (Marder Lab)
Pizza will be served
Mon 10/14/19 12 noon	Gerstenzang 121
Neurobiology Journal Club
NO NEURO JC - BRANDEIS HOLIDAY
Tue 10/15/19 11 am	Abelson 307
String Theory Seminar
Andrea Dei (ETH Zurich)
TBA
Hosted by HEGT Group
Tue 10/15/19 12 noon	Gerstenzang 121
Neurobiology Journal Club
Chelsea Groves Kuhnle (Turrigiano/VanHooser Labs)
Roshan Nanu (Katz/Jadhav/Lisman Labs)
(Brandeis Monday)
Tue 10/15/19 12:30 pm	Gerstenzang 121
Joint Biology/Neuroscience Colloquium
NO TALK - BRANDEIS MONDAY
Tue 10/15/19 3:40 pm	Gerstenzang 121
Chemistry Department Colloquium
Scott Auerbach (UMass Amherst)
Sipping from the Holy Grail: Simulating the Formation of Nanoporous Materials
Hosted by Klaus Schmidt-Rohr
Thu 10/17/19 12 noon	Gerstenzang 121
Molecular Genetics Journal Club
Erick Barrios (Nelson Lab)
Felix Zhou (Haber Lab)
Thu 10/17/19 4 pm	Abelson 333
Dark Universe Seminar
Joseph Formaggio (MIT)
TBA
Hosted by Bjoern Penning and Marcelle Soares-Santos
Fri 10/18/19 11:15 am	Rosenstiel 118
Biochemistry-Biophysics Friday Lunchtime Pizza Talks
Sharon B. Cantor (UMass Medical)
Redefining therapy response in hereditary breast cancer
Hosted by Maria Pandelia
Fri 10/18/19 12:30 pm	Gerstenzang 123
Molecular and Cell Biology & Neuroscience Student Seminars
Siobhan Gartland (Marr Lab)
Bradly Stone (Katz Lab)
Pizza will be served
Mon 10/21/19 12 noon	Gerstenzang 121
Neurobiology Journal Club
NO NEURO JC - BRANDEIS HOLIDAY
Tue 10/22/19 11 am	Abelson 307
String Theory Seminar
TBA
Hosted by HEGT Group
Tue 10/22/19 12:30 pm	Gerstenzang 121
Joint Biology/Neuroscience Colloquium
Dipanjan Chowdhury (Harvard Medical School)
New Factors in DNA Double Strand Break Repair: Impact on genome stability and cancer therapy
Tue 10/22/19 4 pm	Abelson 131
Physics Department Colloquium
Steven Girvin (Yale University)
TBA
Hosted by Matthew Headrick
Thu 10/24/19 12 noon	Gerstenzang 121
Molecular Genetics Journal Club
Melda Buyukozturk (Birren Lab)
Jihyun Choi (Haber Lab)
Thu 10/24/19 4 pm	Abelson 229
MRSEC Seminar
Ming Guo (MIT Mechanical Engineering)
TBA
Hosted by John Berezney
Thu 10/24/19 4 pm	Abelson 333
Dark Universe Seminar
Craig Group (University of Virginia)
TBA
Hosted by Bjoern Penning and Marcelle Soares-Santos
Fri 10/25/19 12:30 pm	Gerstenzang 123
Molecular and Cell Biology & Neuroscience Student Seminars
NO PIZZA TALK
Pizza will be served
Mon 10/28/19 12 noon	Gerstenzang 121
Neurobiology Journal Club
Lauren Tereshko (Turrigiano/Sengupta Labs)
David Hampton (Marder Lab)
Mon 10/28/19 3:40 pm	Gerstenzang 121
Chemistry Department Colloquium
Theodore Goodson (University of Michigan)
Molecular Spectroscopy with Quantum Light
Hosted by Rebecca Gieseking
Tue 10/29/19 11 am	Abelson 307
String Theory Seminar
TBA
Hosted by HEGT Group
Tue 10/29/19 12:30 pm	Gerstenzang 121
M.R. Bauer Colloquium Series
Adam Kepecs (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)
TBA
Hosted by Paul Miller/Don Katz
Tue 10/29/19 4 pm	Abelson 131
Physics Department Colloquium
Aleksandra Walczak (École Normale Supérieure, Paris)
TBA
Hosted by Guillaume Duclos
Thu 10/31/19 12 noon	Gerstenzang 121
Molecular Genetics Journal Club
Rebecca Fenn (Lee Lab)
Jenna Harris (Kadener)
Thu 10/31/19 4 pm	Abelson 333
Dark Universe Seminar
Duan Yutong (Boston University)
TBA
Hosted by Bjoern Penning and Marcelle Soares-Santos
Fri 11/1/19 11:15 am	Rosenstiel 118
Biochemistry-Biophysics Friday Lunchtime Pizza Talks
David W. Christianson (University of Pennsylvania)
Directing Biosynthesis with Modular Architecture in Terpenoid Cyclases
Hosted by Daniel Oprian
Fri 11/1/19 12:30 pm	Gerstenzang 123
Molecular and Cell Biology & Neuroscience Student Seminars
Joyce Rigal (Marr Lab)
Chelsea Groves Kuhnle (Van Hooser/Turrigiano Labs)
Pizza will be served
Mon 11/4/19 12 noon	Gerstenzang 121
Neurobiology Journal Club
Lila Fakharzadeh (Dizio Lab)
Youngmin Park (Fai Lab)
Mon 11/4/19 3:40 pm	Gerstenzang 121
Chemistry Department Colloquium
Rebecca Shulman (Johns Hopkins)
Controlling Soft Materials with Biochemical Reaction Networks
Hosted by Irv Epstien
Tue 11/5/19 11 am	Abelson 307
String Theory Seminar
Thomas Faulkner (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign)
TBA
Hosted by HEGT Group
Tue 11/5/19 12:30 pm	Gerstenzang 121
Joint Biology/Neuroscience Colloquium
Paul Turner (Yale)
TBA
Hosted by Liz Hedstrom
Tue 11/5/19 4 pm	Abelson 131
Physics Department Colloquium
Michael Murrell (Yale University)
TBA
Hosted by Bulbul Chakraborty