BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 METHOD:PUBLISH PRODID:-//Telerik Inc.//Sitefinity CMS 14.3//EN BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:Arab Standard Time BEGIN:STANDARD DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20230101 TZNAME:Arab Standard Time TZOFFSETFROM:+0300 TZOFFSETTO:+0300 END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT DESCRIPTION:Promotion \;Colloquium \;– Professor Christian Froekjae r JensenAs\n part of the current promotion cycle of the University\, Profe ssor Christian Froekjaer Jensen is being considered for promotion to Assoc iate Professor of Bioscience. \;A requirement of the promotion process is to give a \ntechnical colloquium. \;This \;colloquium will pro vide interesting insights \ninto the research interests and achievements o f Prof. Froekjaer JensenAbstract:Synthetic biology is a nascent scientific field that aims to apply engineering principles to biological systems\, w ith early successes in producing anti-malarial medicine and reprogramming immune cells to fight cancer. Engineering living systems also has the pote ntial to uncover fundamental biological principles. However\, the ability to modify the fundamental software of organisms\, the genetic code\, is cu rrently limited by our ability to "write" synthetic DNA and generate compl ex lines of code. For example\, creating fully synthetic genomes is possib le but remains a monumental undertaking limited to single-cell organisms s uch as bacteria and yeast.In the past decade\, my research has focused on developing foundational genetic engineering and software tools to engineer C. elegans\, perhaps the simplest multicellular genetic model organism. I n just two days\, the animal undergoes a deterministic developmental progr am resulting in adults with exactly 959 somatic cells. 302 of these cells are neurons\, and the nervous system is characterized in remarkable detail : every neuronal connection and gene expression profile is known. C. elega ns is thus particularly well-suited for understanding gene expression prog rams and a simple neural network using biological engineering. \;I wil l present our progress over the past five years in modifying the genome\, generating artificial chromosomes from synthetic DNA pools\, and scalable methods for perturbing every gene in C. elegans\, allowing biological engi neering on a scale not previously possible. We have used these tools to ga in novel insights into how large parts of the non-coding genome are derive d from a selfish gene and used as "watermarks" to prevent inherited epigen etic silencing of the organism's genes. My laboratory is currently focused on developing massively parallel reporter assays with the aim of using ma chine-learning algorithms to understand the basic regulatory grammar of ge ne expression.Bio:Prof. Christian Froekjaer Jensen obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Copenhagen\, Denmark. He trained as a postdoc with Prof . Erik Jorgensen at the University of Utah and with Prof. Andrew Fire at S tanford University\, USA. In 2017\, he joined the KAUST Environmental Epig enetics Program (KEEP) as an Assistant Professor of Bioscience. He is a me mber of KAUST Smart Health Initiative and an associate member of the Bioen gineering program. His research group at KAUST\, the laboratory for Synthe tic Genome Biology\, is focused on developing foundational technologies fo r genetic engineering in C. elegans\, and has distributed reagents to over 800 laboratories at more than 450 universities. DTEND:20230206T140000Z DTSTAMP:20240329T085949Z DTSTART:20230206T123000Z LOCATION:Auditorium between Buildings 4 & 5 SEQUENCE:0 SUMMARY:Developing the foundations for synthetic biology in a simple multic ellular animal to understand genome biology UID:RFCALITEM638473103894877439 X-ALT-DESC;FMTTYPE=text/html:
Promotion \;Co lloquium \;– Professor Christian Froekjaer Jensen
As\n part of the current promotion cycle of the University
\, Professor Christian Froekjaer Jensen is being considered for promotion to Associate Professor of Bioscience.&n
bsp\;A requirement of the promotion process is to give a \ntechnical collo
quium. \;This \;colloquium will provide interesting insights \nint
o the research interests and achievements of Prof. Froekjaer Jens
en
Abstract:
Synthetic biology
is a nascent scientific field that aims to apply engineering principles t
o biological systems\, with early successes in producing anti-malarial med
icine and reprogramming immune cells to fight cancer. Engineering living s
ystems also has the potential to uncover fundamental biological principles
. However\, the ability to modify the fundamental software of organisms\,
the genetic code\, is currently limited by our ability to "write" syntheti
c DNA and generate complex lines of code. For example\, creating fully syn
thetic genomes is possible but remains a monumental undertaking limited to
single-cell organisms such as bacteria and yeast.
In the past deca
de\, my research has focused on developing foundational genetic engineerin
g and software tools to engineer C. elegans\, perhaps the simples
t multicellular genetic model organism. In just two days\, the animal unde
rgoes a deterministic developmental program resulting in adults with exact
ly 959 somatic cells. 302 of these cells are neurons\, and the nervous sys
tem is characterized in remarkable detail: every neuronal connection and g
ene expression profile is known. C. elegans is thus particularly
well-suited for understanding gene expression programs and a simple neural
network using biological engineering. \;
I will present our pr
ogress over the past five years in modifying the genome\, generating artif
icial chromosomes from synthetic DNA pools\, and scalable methods for pert
urbing every gene in C. elegans\, allowing biological engineering
on a scale not previously possible. We have used these tools to gain nove
l insights into how large parts of the non-coding genome are derived from
a selfish gene and used as "watermarks" to prevent inherited epigenetic si
lencing of the organism's genes. My laboratory is currently focused on dev
eloping massively parallel reporter assays with the aim of using machine-l
earning algorithms to understand the basic regulatory grammar of gene expr
ession.
Bio:
Prof. Christian Froekjaer Jense
n obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Copenhagen\, Denmark. He train
ed as a postdoc with Prof. Erik Jorgensen at the University of Utah and wi
th Prof. Andrew Fire at Stanford University\, USA. In 2017\, he joined the
KAUST Environmental Epigenetics Program (KEEP) as an Assistant Professor
of Bioscience. He is a member of KAUST Smart Health Initiative and an asso
ciate member of the Bioengineering program. His research group at KAUST\,
the laboratory for Synthetic Genome Biology\, is focused on developing fou
ndational technologies for genetic engineering in C. elegans\, an
d has distributed reagents to over 800 laboratories at more than 450 unive
rsities.