Aug
12
Mon
2013
Plenary Talk: Nano-biotechnology: Omega-3 Oils and Nanofibres @ Sathyam Hall
Aug 12 @ 1:30 pm – 2:05 pm

collinColin Barrow, Ph.D.
Chair in Biotechnology, School of Life & Environmental Sciences, Deakin University, Australia


Nano-biotechnology: Omega-3 Oils and Nanofibres

The health benefits of long-chain omega-3 fatty acids are well established, especially for eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosapentaenoic acid (DHA) from fish and microbial sources. In fact, a billion dollar market exists for these compounds as nutritional supplements, functional foods and pharmaceuticals. This presentation will describe some aspects of our omega-3 biotechnology research that are at the intersection of Nano-biotechnology and oil chemistry. These include the use of lipases for the concentration of omega-3 fats, through immobilization of these lipases on nanoparticles, and the microencapsulation and stabilization of omega-3 oils for functional foods. I will also describe some of our work on the enzymatic production of resolvins using lipoxygenases, and the fermentation of omega-3 oils from marine micro-organisms. Finally, I will describe some of our work on the formation of amyloid fibrils and graphene for various applications in nano-biotechnology.

 

Invited Talk: Control of sequential movements: insights from the oculomotor system @ Amriteshwari Hall
Aug 12 @ 2:26 pm – 2:54 pm

adityaAditya Murthy, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Centre For Neuroscience, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India


Since Karl Lashley’s seminal work on the formulation of serial order, numerous models assume simultaneous representation of competitive elements of a sequence, to account for serial order effects in different types of behavior like typing, speech, etc. Such models follow two basic assumptions: (1) more than one plan representation can be simultaneously active in a planning layer; (2) the most active plan is chosen in another layer called the competitive choice layer. Using the oculomotor system I will describe behavioral and neurophysiological experiments that tests the two critical predictions of such queuing models, providing evidence that basal ganglia in monkeys and humans instantiate a form of queuing that transforms parallel movement representations into more serial representations, allowing for the expression of sequential saccadic eye movements.

Aditya Murthy (2)