Impact of the genomic revolution on medicine and agriculture

Friday 15 June 2012, 12.15PM

Speaker: Professor Janet Thornton, CBE, FRS, Director of European Bioinformatics Institute, Hinxton

The past twenty years have witnessed a step change in biology. The impact of genomic sequencing and other high-throughput methods has revolutionised biological research. Whereas a lab researcher would once spend weeks analysing a gene sequence using molecular biology techniques, the same work can now be done in minutes using public databases of biological information. These databases are rapidly growing resources holding our collected knowledge on the whole spectrum of life. Now we are poised at the moment when this knowledge can be translated into applications with benefits for society. I will present a background to the field of data-intensive biology (bioinformatics) and how we are taking the first steps to exploit the power of biological data for applications in medicine, healthcare and agriculture.

Location: Physics, P/X001

Demography and the Origins of Modern Human Behaviour

Tuesday 19 June 2012, 12.15PM

Speaker: Professor Mark Thomas, University College London

The origins of modern human behaviour are marked by increased symbolic and technological complexity in the archaeological record. In western Eurasia this transition, the Upper Palaeolithic, occurred about 45,000 years ago, but many of its features appear transiently in southern Africa about 45,000 years earlier. We show that demography is a major determinant in the maintenance of cultural complexity and that variation inregional subpopulation density and/or migratory activity results in spatialstructuring of cultural skill accumulation. Genetic estimates of regional population size over time show that densities in early Upper Palaeolithic Europe were similar to those in sub-Saharan Africa when modern behaviour first appeared. Demographic factors can thus explain geographic variation in the timing of the first appearance of modern behaviour without invoking increased cognitive capacity.

Location: Physics, P/X001

TBC; Topic: Stems cells in early development

Wednesday 31 October 2012, 1.15PM

Speaker: Professor Cheryll Ticklel, FRS, University of Bath

Location: Physics, P/X001

TBC; TOPIC: Genomics

Wednesday 7 November 2012, 1.15PM

Speaker: Professor Mark Blaxter, FRS, University of Edinburgh

Location: Physics, P/X001

TBC; TOPIC: Reproductive Biology

Thursday 22 November 2012, 6.30PM

Speaker: Professor Jack Cohen, University of Warwick

Location: Physics, P/X001

The New Biology of Ageing

Wednesday 9 November 2011, 1.15PM

Speaker: Professor Dame Linda Partridge, FRS, University College London

Ageing is an evolutionary paradox, because it is a deleterious trait that none the less has a genetic basis and evolves to produce the great diversity in lifespans seen in nature. Both the complexity of the ageing process and the way in which it evolves have led to pessimism about the prospects for improving human health during ageing. However, research into ageing has been rejuvenated by the discovery of mutations in single genes that extend the lifespan of laboratory animals and keep them healthier as they age. Some of the signalling pathways involved, particularly the insulin/insulin-like growth factor pathway, have effects on lifespan across such diverse species as nematode worms, fruit flies and mice, suggesting that research on animals will lead to discoveries that can be translated into health benefits for humans later in life.

Location: Physics, P/X001

Biodiversity conservation from a palaecological perspective

Wednesday 30 November 2011, 1.15PM

Speaker: Professor Kathy Willis, University of Oxford

Rarely are long-term ecological records (datasets spanning >50 years) included in biodiversity conservation management or policy. This talk will examine the utility of such records in many aspects of biodiversity conservation, from regions and landscapes through to individual species and genes. Examples will be presented from ongoing projects in the Galapagos, Madagascar, Western Ghats and Europe to demonstrate the role that palaoecological records can play in determining biodiversity baselines, thresholds, and resilience in the face of current and future environmental change.

Location: Physics, P/X001

Good news about autism

Wednesday 7 December 2011, 1.15PM

Speaker: Professor Martin Raff, FRS, MRC Laboratory for Molecular Cell Biology, London

Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) are common. From being the least understood of the neuropsychiatric disorders, they are now arguably the best understood. Progress has come largely through recent advances in identifying large-effect mutations that cause or predispose to these disorders and through studies of mouse models based on these mutations. There is increasing evidence that the underlying problem in the brain may be at synapses, where nerve cells make functional connections with one another. Remarkably, in a number of mouse models of ASDs caused by single gene mutations, correcting the problem in the adult brain with drugs or genetic manipulations largely reverses many of the behavioural and neurobiological abnormalities, providing hope for the development of therapies for ASDs. In my talk, I will review the basic features of ASDs and some of the controversies surrounding these conditions, and I will discuss some of the recent advances and speculate on possible ways forward for ASD research.

Location: Physics, P/X001

The roles of Immunity in Influenza virus evolution

Wednesday 25 January 2012, 1.15PM

Speaker: Sir John Skehel, FRS, National Institute for Medical Research, London

Yearly vaccination against Influenza is necessary because antigenic virus variants are selected during infections of partially immune individuals. Antibodies important in the process of selection recognize virus proteins, haemagglutinins, that function in binding and delivering the virus to human cells, during the first stages of virus infection.

The majority of such antibodies block cell binding and most viral variations in haemagglutinin, are in the vicinity of this binding site. Recently, however, antibodies have been described that appear not to select variants but to react with all influenza viruses.

Could these antibodies be stock-piled in an antiviral drug arsenal for use against the next epidemic? Could they be induced by a novel single-shot vaccine?

Location: Physics, P/X001

New insights into prehistoric human diet and agriculture through ancient biomolecules and stable isotopes

Thursday 23 February 2012, 6.30PM

Speaker: Professor Richard Evershed, FRS, University of Bristol

Many of our current eating and drinking habits have their origins in the activities of our ancestors who lived thousands of years ago in the "Fertile Crescent" of the Near East. These early farmers began to raise the animals and grow crops, e.g. cattle and wheat, that we now take for granted as part of our 'normal' 21st century diets. Determining how the production of these vital foods spread away from the original centre of domestication to other parts of the ancient world remains a major question in archaeology. While some indications of how our eating and farming habits evolved over the past 10 thousand years has been gained from identifying physical fragments of animal and plant remains, the application of scientific techniques over the past 20 years has opened a new window on the past.

My presentation focuses on the application of organic residue analysis to the study of ancient diet, farming and hunting in prehistory. This forensic style analytical chemical approach uses state-of-the-art separation (chromatographic) and identification (mass spectrometric) techniques, to reveal preserved biomolecules. Once identified, the structure(s) and isotopic composition(s) of a given biomolecule, or suite of biomolecules, are used as 'chemical fingerprints', to determine the ways animals and plants were exploited and consumed by humans in the past. Application of this approach has allowed long-held archaeological theories to be challenged and new perspectives to be revealed in relation to otherwise invisible, yet vitally important, dimensions of the lives of our ancestors.

Location: Berrick Saul, BS005

How UK soils are changing and the implications for ecosystem services

Wednesday 29 February 2012, 1.15PM

Speaker: Professor Bridget Emmett, Deputy Director of the Biogeochemistry Programme, Environment Centre Wales

A soils monitoring programme which uses an ecosystem approach has been in place in Great Britain for 30 years called Countryside Survey. The findings from the latest survey in 2007 have been interpreted within a natural capital and ecosystem services context to assess the outcome of a range of policies to protect the natural environment and increase sustainability over the last 30 years. Key policy questions related to the potential benefits of declines in atmospheric deposition of acidity, nitrogen and metals on soil quality, the impact of agri-environment schemes and climate change on carbon storage in soils and soil biodiversity, and trends of reduced fertiliser applications on eutrophication of soils and waters. Multi-variate statistics were used to explore the relationship between the different soil measures, the predictive capability of soil and vegetation type and evidence of trade-offs with other ecosystem services.

Location: Physics, P/X001