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Latest News VIEW MORE

KAUST global research team first to observe inherited DNA expressions

KAUST Professor Carlos M. Duarte receives award for research in ecology and conservation

Dozens of new corals discovered on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef

Flushing nitrogen from seawater-based toilets

Spotting cancer's greasy fingerprints

Chlorine could increase antimicrobial resistance

LD Motif Finder locates ancient hidden protein patterns

Better anchor roots help crops grow in poor soils

Plastic biosensor finds sweet success

Thursday, February 13, 2020

KAUST global research team first to observe inherited DNA expressions

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On February 10, KAUST announced new research demonstrating that corals pass patterns of DNA to their offspring. The groundbreaking research marks the first time that this process has been observed in animals within the field of biology. 

Through their research, Manuel Aranda, KAUST associate professor of marine science; KAUST postdoctoral fellow Yi Jin Liew; and University of Wollongong postdoctoral fellow Emily Howells show that corals cannot only adapt to changes in their environment but also pass those learned traits on to their offspring through DNA methylation patterns. The process has previously only been observed in plants.

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Image: KAUST Associate Professor Manuel Aranda and a team of researchers examined intergenerational epigenetic inheritance in corals in work recently published in Nature Climate Change. File photo.

Monday, February 10, 2020

KAUST Professor Carlos M. Duarte receives award for research in ecology and conservation

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On February 4, the University announced that Carlos M. Duarte, KAUST professor of marine science and the Tarek Ahmed Juffali research chair in Red Sea ecology, received a Frontiers of Knowledge Award for Ecology and Conservation Biology from Fundación BBVA in Spain.

Originally from Spain, Duarte has participated in research expeditions worldwide to further the understanding of the diverse marine ecologies that shape environments around the globe. The award recognizes his leadership in researching the global marine science problems of our time, including contributions to Vision 2030, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's blueprint of achievement for the new decade.

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Image: Carlos M. Duarte, KAUST professor of marine science and the Tarek Ahmed Juffali research chair in Red Sea ecology, recently received a Frontiers of Knowledge Award for Ecology and Conservation Biology from Fundación BBVA in Spain. File photo.

Tuesday, February 04, 2020

Dozens of new corals discovered on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef

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Scientists have discovered dozens of new coral species on a recent voyage along the length of the Great Barrier Reef that will provide valuable insights to aid conservation and management of Australia's unique World Heritage site.

The team of researchers from King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), James Cook University (JCU) and University of Technology Sydney (UTS) completed the 21-day expedition ranging from the Capricorn Bunkers off Gladstone to Thursday Island in the Torres Strait last month.

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Image: Dr. Francesca Benzoni, Associate Professor of Marine Science at KAUST discovers new corals on the Great Barrier Reef. Photo credit: Professor Andrew Baird, ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at James Cook University.

Monday, February 03, 2020

Flushing nitrogen from seawater-based toilets

With about half the world’s population living close to the coast, using seawater to flush toilets could be possible with a salt-tolerant bacterium.

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A novel salt-tolerant bacterium cultured from the Red Sea effectively removes nitrogen from salty wastewater, suggests research from Pascal Saikaly’s team at KAUST. The bacterium could be used to treat sewage coming from toilets that use seawater for flushing in place of freshwater.

Less than one percent of Earth’s water is fresh and also accessible for human use. The world’s population is expected to grow to about ten billion by 2050 and will continue to place increasing pressure on this already rare resource.

Currently, toilet flushing accounts for about 30 percent of the world’s total domestic water demand, with an average human flushing a whopping 50 liters per day. Using seawater to flush toilets could partially alleviate pressure on freshwater resources.

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Image: Flushed toilet water accounts for about 30 percent of domestic wastewater.
© 2020 Muhammad Ali

Sunday, January 26, 2020

Spotting cancer's greasy fingerprints

Laser-based microscopes can tune into multiple biomolecular signatures found in cancer cells.

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Lipid droplets normally involved in storing fats have recently been revealed as key players in many cancer cell processes, including their ability to resist treatment. These lipids can now be quantitatively identified more easily than ever using a microscopy technique developed at KAUST.

The chemical bonds holding molecules together produce unique vibrations when excited by a light source. Researchers are now exploiting this effect to characterize living cells and tissue through stimulated Raman scattering microscopy. In this approach, ultrafast laser pulses are used to vibrate biomolecules throughout the volume of a sample. The resulting signals can then help visualize components, including lipids at speeds suitable for video imaging.

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Image: Stimulated Raman microscopy of lipid droplets. Two laser beams with different colors nonlinearly interact inside the lipid droplet. The variation in their intensity holds chemical information.
© 2019 Andrea Bertoncini

Wednesday, January 08, 2020

Chlorine could increase antimicrobial resistance

Ultraviolet light could thwart antimicrobial resistance by damaging DNA material in wastewater.

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Conventional wastewater disinfection using chlorine could facilitate the spread of antimicrobial resistance in bacteria1. Treating some types of wastewater with ultraviolet (UV) light instead could be part of the solution2, according to a study at KAUST’s Water Desalination and Reuse Center, published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology.

Bacteria are rapidly developing mechanisms to evade the effects of antimicrobial drugs, and this resistance is increasingly threatening public health. Pharmaceutical compounds and resistant bacteria that reach municipal and agricultural wastewater are partially to blame. Interestingly, the antimicrobial resistance of bacteria in wastewater entering water treatment plants is lower than after the wastewater leaves the treatment plant.

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Image: Mutagens, such as disinfection byproducts, in treated wastewater elicit a colorimetric response in this 96-well plate.
© 2019 KAUST

Monday, January 06, 2020

LD Motif Finder locates ancient hidden protein patterns

A machine learning method has identified highly elusive amino acid sequences involved in cell morphogenesis and adhesion and in diseases like cancer.

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An iterative machine learning approach has identified elusive 800 million-year-old amino acid patterns that are responsible for facilitating protein interactions.

Leucine-aspartic acid (LD) motifs are short amino acid sequences embedded within some proteins to link them to cellular molecules that control cell adhesion, motility and survival. They are known to also play a role in cancer cell spreading and in cardiovascular and infectious diseases. LD motifs were first revealed in 1996 in a family of proteins called paxillin. Only three other LD motif-containing proteins have been discovered since then, and scientists do not know the importance of LD motifs or how many other types of proteins contain them.

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Image: The researchers used AI methods to predict the interaction (shown by the dashed lines) of short, linear protein segments (green stick model) with their target proteins (molecular representation on the left). Predictions were experimentally confirmed as shown by the imprint of the ligand on the surface of the target protein (blue, magenta and pink colored surfaces).
© 2019 Rayan Naser

Thursday, December 26, 2019

Better anchor roots help crops grow in poor soils

A newly discovered plant metabolite that promotes anchor root growth may prove valuable in helping crops grow in nutrient-deficient soils.

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A metabolite in plants that regulates the growth of anchor roots—vital for sustaining water and nutrient uptake in plants—has been identified and may have useful applications in agriculture.

Pigment compounds called carotenoids are found in all plants and play a key role in successful photosynthesis and the generation of plant hormones and metabolites. These products are formed when enzyme activity causes carotenoid molecules to split—a process known as cleavage. While many carotenoid products are known to play key biological roles, less is known about one group of cleavage molecules called di-apocarotenoids.

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Image: A newly identified metabolite that stimulates anchor root growth in Arabidopsis plants may have potential applications in promoting plant growth in nutrient-deficient soils. The two plants treated with anchorene (right) show anchor root formation while untreated plants do not show anchor root formation.
© 2019 KAUST

Monday, December 16, 2019

Plastic biosensor finds sweet success

Medical diagnostic device extracts energy from sugars naturally present in the body to drive its glucose-sensing circuitry.

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An electronic biosensor powered using the glucose in bodily fluids has been developed by KAUST researchers. The device pairs an electron-transporting polymer with an enzyme that extracts electrons from its reaction with glucose to drive its circuitry. The plastic biosensor could act as a continuous monitor of key health indicators, such as blood sugar levels in diabetes patients.

“Quick, accurate and early detection of abnormalities in metabolism is of paramount importance to monitor, control and prevent many diseases, including diabetes,” says David Ohayon, a Ph.D. student in Sahika Inal's lab who led led the research with postdoctoral colleague Georgios Nikiforidis. “Today's glucose monitors are mainly limited to finger-pricking devices, which are often painful,” he says. Implantable glucose-sensing devices are being developed, but their batteries complicate implantation and must eventually be recharged or replaced.

An ideal alternative technology would be implantable polymer biosensors that are able to power themselves using molecules around them.

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Image: A schematic of the all-polymer biofuel cell, which draws energy from the glucose naturally present in saliva.
© 2019 KAUST; Heno Hwang

Latest Events VIEW MORE

24FebKEEP SeminarPredicting Binding Preference of RNA Constituents on Protein SurfaceProfessor Xin Gao
01MarInvited SeminarDevelopment of high-throughput process to optimise microbes for biofertilizer applicationsZeenat Rupawalla

KEEP Seminar

Predicting Binding Preference of RNA Constituents on Protein Surface

Professor Xin Gao

24Feb

DATE: Monday, February 24, 2020

TIME: 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM

LOCATION:Auditorium between Bldg 2&3 - Level 0 - Room 0215

2020-02-24T11:002020-02-24T12:00Asia/RiyadhPredicting Binding Preference of RNA Constituents on Protein Surface Auditorium between Bldg 2&3 - Level 0 - Room 0215

Abstract:
Protein-RNA interaction is ubiquitous in cells and serves as the main mechanism for post-transcriptional regulation. Base-dominant interaction and backbone-dominant interaction categorize the two main modes of the way RNA interacts with proteins. Despite the advances in experimental technologies and computational methods to capture protein-RNA interactions, estimating binding preference of RNA backbone constituents and different bases on any location of a given protein surface is beyond the capacity of existing techniques.
In this talk, I will introduce our recent work on developing a deep learning model, NucleicNet, to predict these attributes from the local physicochemical characteristics of the protein structure surface. NucleicNet is able to predict the preference of non-site, phosphate, ribose, and four different bases on any location of any given protein structure. For known RNA binding proteins (RBPs), NucleicNet can help design the binding RNA. For proteins with unknown RNA binding function, NucleicNet can be used to predict if the protein is an RBP, and if so, where the binding pocket is and what RNA is expected to bind to.

Bio:
Dr. Xin Gao is an associate professor of computer science at KAUST. He is also the Acting Associate Director of the Computational Bioscience Research Center and the lead of the Structural and Functional Bioinformatics Group at KAUST. Prior to joining KAUST, he was a Lane Fellow at Lane Center for Computational Biology in School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University. He earned his bachelor degree in Computer Science in 2004 from Tsinghua University and his Ph.D. degree in Computer Science in 2009 from University of Waterloo.
Dr. Gao’s research interest lies at the intersection between computer science and biology. In the field of computer science, he is interested in developing machine learning theories and methodologies related to deep learning, probabilistic graphical models, kernel methods and matrix factorization. In the field of bioinformatics, his group works on building computational models, developing machine learning techniques, and designing efficient and effective algorithms to tackle key open problems along the path from biological sequence analysis, to 3D structure determination, to function annotation, to understanding and controlling molecular behaviors in complex biological networks, and, recently, to biomedicine and healthcare.
He has published more than 190 papers in the fields of bioinformatics and machine learning. He is the associate editor of Genomics, Proteomics & Bioinformatics, BMC Bioinformatics, and Quantitative Biology, and the guest editor-in-chief of IEEE/ACM Transactions on Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, Methods, and Frontiers in Genetics.

LOCATION

Invited Seminar

Development of high-throughput process to optimise microbes for biofertilizer applications

Zeenat Rupawalla

01Mar

DATE: Sunday, March 01, 2020

TIME: 01:30 PM - 02:30 PM

LOCATION:Building 3 - Level 5 - Room 5220

2020-03-01T13:302020-03-01T14:30Asia/RiyadhDevelopment of high-throughput process to optimise microbes for biofertilizer applications Building 3 - Level 5 - Room 5220

Host: Professor Kyle Lauersen

Abstract:
The global economy is valued at US$127 Tn/year and the agricultural sector contributes 6.4% of that at US$8.1 Tn/year. By 2050, we will need 70% more food to support the growing population of 9.8 billion people. Therefore, preservation of arable land is critical to meeting a range of UN Sustainable Development Goals (e.g. No Poverty, Zero Hunger, Clean Water and Sanitation) and protecting our planetary boundaries (e.g. chemical pollution, climate change, biodiversity conservation, and global freshwater use). To ensure a sustainable future, the implementation of next-generation photosynthetic microalgae-based biofertiliser can play a vital role where algae biomass can be grown on non-arable land with saline and/or wastewater. Along with nutrient recycling (e.g. nitrogen and phosphorus) in a contained system, ultimately reducing freshwater, arable land use and reliance on energy-intensive chemical fertiliser use.

LOCATION

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Graduate Programs

BESE offers four degree granting programs. In all programs students are offered modules consisting of lectures, seminars, and laboratory classes, and are expected to conduct independent research. BESE boasts state-of-the-art facilities and resources, including some of the most advanced equipment in the world for genomics, proteomics, imaging/characterization, nanofarication, and capability to explore global marine environments.

BIOSCIENCE

MARINE SCIENCE

PLANT SCIENCE

ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & ENGINEERING

BIOENGINEERING

BIOSCIENCE

The Bioscience Program provides an introduction to living systems with courses in cell and molecular biology and biophysics. The program is comprised of two tracks of self-contained courses consisting of lectures, seminars and laboratory classes. Each course provides an in-depth review of the subject and examples of current research in the field.

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MARINE SCIENCE

The goal of the Marine Science Program is to develop an integrated understanding of the Red Sea’s ecosystem as well as marine ecosystems in general, including fundamental biology at the molecular and genomic levels, symbiosis with algae and prokaryotes (Bacteria and Archaea), associated communities of fish and corals and the physical and chemical environment that impacts and shapes them. This understanding could have an impact on global carbon cycling, endangered species and how we manage the harvesting of resources from the Oceans.

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PLANT SCIENCE

The goal of the Plant Science Program is to develop a thorough understanding of plant growth and function under challenging environmental conditions, such as those found in Saudi Arabia. The fundamental biology of plants is studied at a range of levels (e.g. genomic, proteomic, metabolomics), and the interactions of plants with their environment, both abiotic (heat, salt, and drought) and biotic (pathogens and symbionts) are investigated. Application of this knowledge will allow development of plants with enhanced tolerance to environmental stresses and help to establish sustainable agriculture systems in arid regions of the world.

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ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & ENGINEERING

The Environmental Science and Engineering Program (EnSE) prepares students to work on many of the world’s most pressing challenges. There is a worldwide concern with the availability of clean water; EnSE examines methods to purify and reuse water, as well as to reduce contamination of existing reserves. The focus of the program is on examining the impact of humans on our environment through resource exploitation; including over-consumption, land degradation, and pollution of water. The results of these efforts may offer solutions to water scarcity, soil contamination.

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BIOENGINEERING

A bioengineer develops and applies engineering principles to life sciences. The field focuses on the development and application of engineering concepts, principles, and methods to biological systems. We aim to model, monitor, and treat disorders and disabilities that affect living organisms, to develop algorithms which aid understanding biological systems and to engineer living systems in order to enhance their performance. The technologies that are generated in this area might include synthetic tissues or organs, sensors that are wired to human body and prosthetics that mimic the natural function of a limb, smart algorithms and end-to-end data analytical engines, bioreactors that improve the quality of treated wastewater and bacteria engineered to produce resources. Bioengineering integrates elements of electrical and mechanical engineering, biochemistry, chemistry, computer science and materials science with biology. Thanks to this multidisciplinary nature, the field of bioengineering often creates out-of-the-box solutions addressing and solving challenges in effect augmenting the well-being of living systems.

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FACULTY COMMUNITIES

Research at the BESE Division brings students, faculty, and researchers together to push the frontiers of science through collaborative inquiry into issues of global and regional significance.

The Faculty at BESE belong to one of two communities: Bioscience and Biological Engineering or Environmental Science Engineering. Those communities cover the following Research Areas.