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13-2137</title></head><body>
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<blockquote type="cite" cite>This Thursday marks another installment
of Small Talks, an informal<br>
interdisciplinary seminar series for students by students.
Please join us<br>
from 4-5p in 13-2137, for a Small Talk by Sabrina L Spencer<b>.</b>
Light refreshments<br>
& drinks will be served.<br>
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<b>Stochasticity in cell fate decisions</b><br>
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Sabrina L Spencer, MIT, PhD student, Computational & Systems
Biology<br>
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Thursday, Nov 6th, 4-5pm, Room 13-2137<br>
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Discussion Topic<br>
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<blockquote type="cite" cite>Diversity within a population of
organisms is typically ascribed to genetic differences. However,
even members of a genetically identical population of cells or
organisms raised in an identical environment can exhibit variability
in behavior and appearance. The field of systems biology has
recently begun to focus on possible non-genetic origins of cell
individuality. This individuality is thought to arise in part
from the stochastic nature of chemical reactions inside a cell, which
can produce variability in the concentrations of cellular contents
(RNA, proteins) across a population. A critical question, then,
is whether these chance differences between individual cells have
direct physiological consequences for cells.<br>
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<blockquote type="cite" cite>Early in my PhD, I became intrigued by
the fact that even at saturating doses, some human cells exposed to a
death-inducing drug called TRAIL undergo apoptosis (a form of
controlled cell death) whereas others survive. This is true even of
cell populations that are genetically homogeneous. Because TRAIL
is currently in clinical trials as an anti-cancer therapy, variability
in response is of potential clinical significance. In my talk, I
will summarize my findings from the past three years. I have
used time-lapse imaging of single cells with fluorescent reporters as
well as mathematical modeling to show that transient cell-to-cell
differences in the internal concentrations of apoptosis regulators are
a key contributor to variability in cell fate. Thus, stochastic
fluctuations inside cells can have a significant impact on
life-or-death decisions.<br>
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Small Talks -- Educational Seminars for Students by Students<br>
<a
href="http://web.mit.edu/small-talks">http://web.mit.edu/small-talks</a
><br>
Sponsors -- Graduate Student Life Grants, DMSE, MechE, Chemistry, RLE,
Aero/Astro, MEMS@MIT<br>
Every Week, Thursday Afternoons, 4-5p<br>
Light Refreshments & Drinks<br>
<br>
Each hour-long Small Talk features a researcher introducing their
domain of research for an audience of fellow scholars. Presenters
speak for about a half-hour and give a general overview of their
research area, spiced with a few personal research examples, leaving
plenty of time for Q&A. This is not intended as a
practice-talk for a conference or for delivery of detailed research
results. Instead, we ask presenters to introduce the basics and
big picture of their broad category of work. The intent of Small
Talks is to raise general awareness of current research across MIT; to
increase opportunities for collaborations; and to be an informal,
interdisciplinary forum for students.<br>
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_______________________________________________<br>
Small-talks-announce mailing list<br>
<a
href="imap://tkm@po11.mit.edu:993/fetch>UID>.INBOX>33034"
>Small-talks-announce@mit.edu</a><br>
<a
href="imap://tkm@po11.mit.edu:993/fetch>UID>.INBOX>33034"
>http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/small-talks-announce</a><br>
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<div>*****************************************<br>
Debra L. Martin, Programs Manager<br>
MIT<br>
Vice President for Research Office, Rm 11-268<br>
77 Massachusetts Avenue<br>
Cambridge, MA 02139<br>
617-258-0310, 617-252-1003 (fax)<br>
debra@mit.edu</div>
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