Dr. Berge A. Minassian
MD, Chief of Pediatric Neurology, UT Southwestern Medical Center
Department of Pediatrics, Division of Neurology​

Abstract:
With several Nobel prizes along the way, glycogen construction was thought to be settled science.  Namely, glycogen synthase elongates chains, which glycogen branching enzyme cleaves and reattaches upstream, and balanced activities of the two enzymes ensures radial growth of the molecule and solubility.  Lafora disease is a fatal neurodegenerative disease of children in whom glycogen is malstructured.  Long-chained, its strands fold round each other, exclude water, precipitate, and accumulate into massive neurotoxic Lafora bodies.  We have discovered the disease genes, which encode the laforin glycogen phosphatase and the malin ubiquitin E3 ligase.  In this lecture, I present the latest advances in our understanding of how these enzymes regulate glycogen structure, ensuring its sphericity and molecule-through hydro-perfusion, which allows the cytoplasm’s largest macromolecule to remain soluble, and accessible to metabolism.  

​Dr. Daniel Ebner
Principal Investigator, Target Discovery Institute
Head of Scientific Operation, National Phenotypic Screening Centre - Oxford
Nuffield Department of Medicine, University of Oxford

Abstract:
The TDI Cellular High Throughput Screening Facility (TDI CHTSF) is a “collaborative core facility” at the University of Oxford, which employs cell-based screens using small compound, RNAi, genome-wide CRISPR/Cas9 and biochemical small compound screens to identify novel drug targets for potential therapeutic development.  The TDI CHTSF draws on the expertise of the academic research staff of the University of Oxford, capitalizing on existing strengths in genetics and genomic medicine, molecular and cellular biology, structural biology, chemistry, pharmacology, and medicine to fulfil our mandate.
The TDI CHTS Facility, in collaboration with scientist from across Oxford and the larger UK academic research community, has developed and produced >120 phenotypic high throughput screens across a range of pathologies including cancer, neurodegeneration, immunology, cardiovascular disease and wound healing.  Daniel Ebner will introduce the facility and highlight a number of successful high content imaging collaborative projects completed (and published) over the past eight years.
 
Bio:
Dr. Daniel Ebner is a Principal Investigator at the University of Oxford, England.  His research focusses on the identification of novel radiosensitizing targets or small compounds to increase the therapeutic application of ionizing radiation in cancer, which remains the standard of care in over 40% of all cancer treatments.  Additionally, as Head of the Target Discovery Institutes Cellular High Throughput Screening Facility (TDI CHTSF), Daniel’s research is focused on the development, transfer, production and analysis of cell based high throughput screening assays across a broad range of scientific disciplines using CRISPR/Cas9 genome-wide screens, RNAi and target specific small compound libraries as our primary tools for target identification.  Finally, as Head of Scientific Operation, National Phenotypic Screening Centre – Oxford, the facility includes a powerful industrial scale phenotypic drug screening platform which capitalizes on recent advances in cell and organ culture systems, genetic engineering, stem cell technology and automated, high-content screening to provide a relevant, disease and patient-centred drug development program.
The TDI CHTSF has completed >120 research projects and currently manages the development/production of 12 large research projects including a £6.7M CRUK Brain Tumour Grant in collaboration with MIT and the University of Edinburgh.  Additional funders include the UK MRC, NHS, NIH, EU, Wellcome Trust, Cancer Research UK, Alzheimer’s Research UK, Motor Neuron Disease Association and several smaller cancer-focused charitable organizations. This broad range of research activity accounts for >£17.5 Million in project grants and £21 Million in program grants to the University while working in collaboration with research scientists from 17 departments/institutes from across the Oxford Medical Sciences Division, with an operating budget of ~£500,000 / year.

Lunch will be served at 12:00 noon

​Abstract:
Hydrodynamic processes play a major role in shaping coral reef ecosystems, affecting sedimentation, mass transfer of nutrients, benthic grazing by filter feeders, and even predator-prey interactions. In this talk, I  will present observations illustrating the variety of flows that can be seen on coral reefs around the world. This brief tour will show flows and turbulence on reefs subject to active internal wave fields (North Atlantic), buoyancy variations (Red Sea), and, as is often the case, surface waves (North and South Pacific). From the South Pacific, I will discuss observations of flows seen on the reef system of the North Shore of Moorea, French Polynesia, where detailed observations of waves and flows driven by wave breaking show the surprising accuracy of predictions based on classical linear wave theory.  From the North Pacific I will highlight measurements of remarkable wave damping by the lush reefs of Palmyra Atoll. Finally, time permitting, I will discuss recent research carried out in one of the shallow lagoons on Ofu, American Samoa, examining the connection between drag and topography. By combining field observations of hydrodynamics, drone-derived bathymetry data, and high resolution CFD we show that hydrodynamic drag can be quantitatively related to coral roughness.
 
Bio:
Stephen Monismith, the Obayashi Professor in the School of Engineering at Stanford University, received all his degrees (in Civil Engineering ) from UC Berkeley. Following completion of his thesis, he did a postdoc in Western Australia focusing on the fluid mechanics of stratified flows in lakes. He has been at Stanford in the Dept of Civil and Environmental Engineering since 1987, has been the director of the Environmental Fluid Mechanics Laboratory at Stanford since 1996, and was department chair between 2009 and 2016. His research uses field, lab, and computational experiments to look at estuarine and lake physics as well as nearshore flows with waves and stratification, focusing on mixing and transport processes that are central to ecology, biogeochemistry and environmental management. Through his work on estuarine dynamics, he has been active in San Francisco Bay-Delta issues, including helping to develop the scientific underpinnings of freshwater flow regulations. In recent years, much of his efforts (and travel) have focused on the physics of coral reef flows, with fieldwork and modeling carried out on reefs in the Red Sea, and in nearshore waters of Hawaii, Moorea, Palmyra Atoll, American Samoa, and Palau. He has parallel interests studying the inner shelf flows found near and inside the kelp forests of California.