181201 Use Single-Cell RNA-Seq to Tackle Complex Biology

Title:
Use Single-Cell RNA-Seq to Tackle Complex Biology

Speaker:
孫楷惠 (Kai-Hui Sun), PhD, Genentech

Time:
12/01 (Sat.) 5:30 pm PST, 6:30 pm MST, 7:30 pm CST, 8:30 pm EST
12/02 (Sun.) 9:30 am Taiwan

Keywords:
Diseases & Drug Discovery, Molecular & Cell Biology, Computational Biology, Single Cell Genomics

Abstract:
This presentation aims to target a broad spectrum of audience and to avoid complicated jargon. Starting with the most basic and relevant Molecular and Cell Biology, I will focus on using Single-cell RNA-sequencing as a tool to tackle complex biological questions and diseases.

181117 Game Theoretic Notions of Fairness in Multi-Party Coin Toss

Title:
Game Theoretic Notions of Fairness in Multi-Party Coin Toss

Speaker:
林偉楷 (Wei-Kai Lin), PhD student, Cornell University

Time:
11/17 (Sat.) 7 pm PST, 8 pm MST, 9 pm CST, 10 pm EST
11/18 (Sun.) 11 am Taiwan

Keywords:
Computer science, Cryptography, Coin toss, Multi-party computation, Fairness

Abstract:

Coin tossing 是密碼學的一個基礎協定，參與這個協定的兩個或多個成員透過遠端通訊，讓所有成員產生一個共同的 "公正" 隨機變數。Coin tossing 困難的地方在於參與協定的惡意成員可能想改變 X 的取值，使得 X 變得不 "公正"。因此，不同的 "公正" 定義，就會產生不同的 coin tossing 問題。

在這個演講，我會討論傳統的定義 "完全公正"，新的定義 "極大極小公正"，以及在新的定義下 coin tossing 問題是否可解。

181110 Germ-Band Development and Embryogenesis Rate in Atta texana

Title:
Germ-Band Development and Embryogenesis Rate in Atta texana

Speaker:
方棋羣 (Chi-Chun Fang), PhD candidate, UT Austin

Time:
請注意：本週起，北美地區日光節約時間結束，與台灣時差增加 1 小時

11/10 (Sat.) 6 pm PST, 7 pm MST, 8 pm CST, 9 pm EST
11/11 (Sun.) 10 am Taiwan

Keywords:
Evolutionary biology, Ecology, Leafcutter ant, Myrmicinae, Fungus, Symbiosis

  為配合本研究發表時程，本次錄影將延遲上傳

Abstract:

Ants (Formicidae, Hymenoptera) are useful model systems for ecological, behavioral, and evolutionary studies due to their complex social structures. However, the developmental biology of ant embryos has been neglected. Unlike Drosophila or well-studied Hymenopteran species (Apis, Nasonia) whose embryogenesis had been characterized and which undergo long germ-band development, we observed several characteristics of short/intermediate germ-band development in the ant Atta texana by examining expression of the segment polarity gene wingless (wg). We discovered that wg signals were sequentially expressed in developing segments during embryogenesis. We confirmed for A. texana the well-known phenomenon that broods from foundresses develop at a faster rate than the broods from mature colonies. This posed the question of whether growth was accelerated across all of the development stages, or was it focused at a particular stage. During the egg-stage in Atta, we observed that growth acceleration occurs during the elongation and segmentation phases of embryogenesis. The accelerated phases effectively accelerate egg development by around 25% compared to eggs from mature Atta colonies. These findings suggest future studies examining the biochemical and genetic factors underlying this rapid embryogenesis.