להנדסה ביו רפואית

05 ביוני 2016, 14:00 
 

 

ד"ר פבלו בלינדר

בית ספר סגול לנוירוביולוגיה, הפקולטה למדעי החיים

אוניברסיטת תל אביב

 ""Towards a multi-scale quantification of the structure and function

of the neurovascular interface"

It is estimated that the brain has about 2 seconds of internal energy to support its activity. Therefore, neurons (and other cells) relay on the continuous supply of oxygen and nutrients to active areas. This localized on-demand supply mechanism allow proper brain function and underlays the physiological source of the BOLD signal used in human functional imaging. We seek to quantify the structure and function of the neuro-glio-vascular interface with the long-term goal to decode the transform function from neuronal activity to a localized vascular output (i.e. increase in blood flow). We focus our initial effort to the system-level organization pattern between neuronal units (i.e. cortical columns) and ask whether there’s a vascular counterpart associated with them. Moreover, we extend this question to seek for general building principles along the entire lemniscal pathway where neuronal units are clearly identified also in the thalamus and trigeminal ganglia. Our current data challenges the accepted view of a stereotypic spatial organization patter and the emerging brain architectonical principle points to a lack of such organization, positioning neuronal units in a vascular continuum.

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קיריל לומקין

 

Genome Wide RNA Folding Structure Selection detection in Ebola Viruses via a computational modeling

Ebola is a virus with five subtypes and causes a severe, often fatal form of hemorrhagic fever disease in human and/or nonhuman primates; currently there is no approved vaccine or medicine is available for Ebola.

 It is known that various secondary structures conformation of the viral RNA involve in the regulation of different steps in the viral life cycle, including gene expression and replication, and have important effect on the viral fitness.

 In this work, we performed for the first time a large scale computational analysis to detect regions in the viral genetic material that undergo selection for ‘silent’ features such as weak/strong local RNA folding strength in 988 Ebola virus genomes, from five subtypes.

By devising relevant null models, among others, we were able to detect dozens of novel positions (~2.8% of the genome) that are suspected to undergo such a selection. We demonstrate that many of these positions are conserved among different subtypes (e.g. 13% of the detected positions are shared by at least two subtypes).

The new discoveries promote the development of novel future anti-viral therapeutic approaches and vaccines.

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