From csbi-events at mit.edu Wed Mar 1 07:56:09 2006 From: csbi-events at mit.edu (CSBi events) Date: Wed, 1 Mar 2006 07:56:09 -0500 Subject: [CSBi-events] (Reminder) CSBi Seminar Series-3/3/06 Message-ID: Dear CSBi Community, This note simply serves to remind you of our upcoming CSBi Seminar Series event on Friday, March 3rd. Please join us if your schedule permits! Thank you. Dr. Andrew Endy Cabot Assistant Professor Biological Engineering Division Massachusetts Institute of Technology "Languages and Grammars for Programming DNA" Friday, March 3, 2006 Maclaurin Building (3-270) 3:00 - 4:00 p.m. Light refreshments served beginning at 2:45 p.m. Abstract Recent investments in fabrication process engineering have improved the technology of DNA synthesis such that it is now reasonable to construct synthetic genes and small viral genomes. Expected improvements in synthesis technology are sufficient to encourage several groups to begin work constructing synthetic bacterial genomes and yeast chromosomes. The advent of large-scale synthesis technology will directly impact the science of genetics, promoting "perturbation design" as a new foundational approach (building on past foundations in logic, mapping, and pattern recognition). Synthesis also directly enables the engineering of genetic and genetically-encoded systems. However, today, biological engineering lacks any robust framework that supports making good use of synthesis to encode useful, many-component integrated biological systems. While we can write DNA, we have very little to say. Here, I'll review the current state of gene and genome synthesis technology, our initial framework for programming DNA, and discuss ongoing research to improve this framework. Host: Dr. Douglas A. Lauffenburger Biological Engineering Division Contact: Isadora Deese 617.253.5494 Sponsored by CSBi http://csbi.mit.edu/ Annual CSBi Seminar Series in Computational and Systems Biology The entire MIT Community is welcome to attend! -- Brenda E. Pepe Administrative Assistant to Professor Christopher B. Burge Massachusetts Institute of Technology Department of Biology, 68-223 31 Ames Street Cambridge, MA 02139 Tel: 617-452-3885 Fax: 617-452-2936 From csbi-events at mit.edu Wed Mar 22 08:19:30 2006 From: csbi-events at mit.edu (CSBi events) Date: Wed, 22 Mar 2006 08:19:30 -0500 Subject: [CSBi-events] CSBi Speaker Series-4/20/06 (Dr. C. Bustamante) Message-ID: Dear CSBi Community, This message simply serves to inform you of our upcoming CSBi Speaker Series event on Thursday, April 20th. Please note, this event will be held in Building 4, room 270. We sincerely hope that you will join us if your schedule permits. Thank you. Dr. Carlos Bustamante Professor of Molecular and Cell Biology, Physics and Chemistry and Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator University of California, Berkeley "Direct Observation of Substeps Reveals the RNA Unwinding Mechanism of HCV NS3 Helicase" Thursday, April 20, 2006 Maclaurin Building (4-270) 3:00 - 4:00 p.m. Light refreshments served at 2:45 p.m. Abstract Helicases are a ubiquitous class of enzymes involved in nearly all aspects of DNA and RNA metabolism. Despite recent progress in understanding their mechanism of action, limited resolution has left inaccessible the detailed mechanisms by which these enzymes couple the rearrangement of nucleic acid structures to the binding and hydrolysis of ATP. Observing individual mechanistic cycles of these motor proteins is central to understanding their cellular functions. Here we follow in real time, at a resolution of two base pairs and 20 ms, the RNA translocation and unwinding cycles of a hepatitis C virus helicase (NS3) monomer. NS3 is a representative superfamily-2 helicase essential for viral replication and therefore a potentially important drug target. We show that the cyclic movement of NS3 is coordinated by ATP in discrete steps of 11?3 base pairs, and that actual unwinding occurs in rapid smaller substeps of 3.6?1.3 base pairs, also triggered by ATP binding, indicating that NS3 might move like an inchworm. This ATP-coupling mechanism is likely to be applicable to other non-hexameric helicases involved in many essential cellular functions. The assay developed here should be useful in investigating a broad range of nucleic acid translocation motors. Host: Dr. Robert T. Sauer Biology Department Contact: Brenda E. Pepe 617.253.6077 Sponsored by CSBi http://csbi.mit.edu/ Annual CSBi Seminar Series in Computational and Systems Biology The entire MIT Community is welcome to attend! -- Brenda E. Pepe Administrative Assistant to Professor Christopher B. Burge Massachusetts Institute of Technology Department of Biology, 68-223 31 Ames Street Cambridge, MA 02139 Tel: 617-452-3885 Fax: 617-452-2936