Aug
12
Mon
2013
Invited Talk: Epigenetic Changes due to DNA Methylation in Human Epithelial Tumors @ Acharya Hall
Aug 12 @ 12:18 pm – 12:39 pm

sathyaK. Satyamoorthy, Ph.D.
Director, Life Sciences Centre, Manipal University, India


Epigenetic Changes due to DNA Methylation in Human Epithelial Tumors

Extensive global hypomethylation in the genome and hypermthylation of selective tumor specific suppressor genes appears to be a hallmark of human cancers.  Data suggests that hypermethylation of promoter region in genes is more closely related to subsequent gene expression; contrary to gene-body DNA methylation.  The intricate balance between these two may contribute to the progressive process of development, differentiation and carcinogenesis.  Epigenetic changes encompass, apart from DNA methylation, chromatin modifications through post-translational changes in histones and control by miRNAs.  At the genome level, effects from these are compounded by copy number variations (CNVs) which may ultimately influence protein functions.    From clinical perspective, changes in DNA methylation occur very early which are reversible and are influenced by environmental factors.  Therefore, these can be potential resource for identifying therapeutic targets as well as biomarkers for early screening of cancer.  Our current efforts in profiling genome wide DNA methylation changes in oral, cervical and breast cancers through DNA methylation microarray analysis has revealed number of alterations critical for survival, progression and metastatic behavior of tumors.  Bioinformatics and functional analysis revealed several key regulatory molecules controlled by DNA methylation and suggests that DNA methylation changes in several CpG islands appear to co-segregate in the regions of miRNAs as well as in the CNVs.  We have validated the signatures for methylation of CpG islands through bisufite sequencing for essential genes in clinical samples and have undertaken transcriptional and functional analysis in tumor cell lines.    These results will be presented.

Aug
13
Tue
2013
Plenary Talk: Biosensor and Single Cell Manipulation using Nanopipettes @ Amriteshwari Hall
Aug 13 @ 10:06 am – 10:49 am

NaderNader Pourmand, Ph.D.
Director, UCSC Genome Technology Center,University of California, Santa Cruz


Biosensor and Single Cell Manipulation using Nanopipettes

Approaching sub-cellular biological problems from an engineering perspective begs for the incorporation of electronic readouts. With their high sensitivity and low invasiveness, nanotechnology-based tools hold great promise for biochemical sensing and single-cell manipulation. During my talk I will discuss the incorporation of electrical measurements into nanopipette technology and present results showing the rapid and reversible response of these subcellular sensors  to different analytes such as antigens, ions and carbohydrates. In addition, I will present the development of a single-cell manipulation platform that uses a nanopipette in a scanning ion-conductive microscopy technique. We use this newly developed technology to position the nanopipette with nanoscale precision, and to inject and/or aspirate a minute amount of material to and from individual cells or organelle without comprising cell viability. Furthermore, if time permits, I will show our strategy for a new, single-cell DNA/ RNA sequencing technology that will potentially use nanopipette technology to analyze the minute amount of aspirated cellular material.

Plenary Talk: Interspike Interval Distribution of Neuronal Model with distributed delay: Emergence of unimodal, bimodal and Power law @ Sathyam Hall
Aug 13 @ 1:20 pm – 2:00 pm

karmeshuKarmeshu, Ph.D.
Dean & Professor, School of Computer & Systems Sciences & School of Computational & Integrative Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, India.


Interspike Interval Distribution of Neuronal Model with distributed delay: Emergence of unimodal, bimodal and Power law

The study of interspike interval distribution of spiking neurons is a key issue in the field of computational neuroscience. A wide range of spiking patterns display unimodal, bimodal  ISI patterns including power law behavior. A challenging problem is to understand the biophysical mechanism which can generate  the empirically observed patterns. A neuronal model with distributed delay (NMDD) is proposed and is formulated as an integro-stochastic differential equation which corresponds to a non-markovian process. The widely studied IF and LIF models become special cases of this model. The NMDD brings out some interesting features when excitatory rates are close to inhibitory  rates rendering the drift close to zero. It is interesting that NMDD model with gamma type memory kernel can also account for bimodal ISI pattern. The mean delay of the memory kernels plays a significant role in bringing out the transition from unimodal to bimodal  ISI distribution. It is interesting to note that when a collection of neurons group together and fire together, the ISI distribution exhibits  power law.