Date:  February 18, 2008

Speaker:  Dr. Matt Edwards, Biology, SDSU

Seminar Title: "It's the little things:  the role of microscopic life stages in kelp forest ecology"

GRADUATE STUDENT SEMINAR
 
 “Investigating the Role of Thioredoxin-interacting Protein (Txnip) in Glucose Metabolism”

Allen Andres
Davis Lab
( http://www.bio.sdsu.edu/pub/davis/davis.html)

 Date: Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Time: 3:15 p.m.
Place: BioScience Center, Gold Auditorium

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SDSU Molecular Biology Institute
Invitrogen-MBI Seminar Series

Dr. Rolf Bodmer
 Program Director, Professor
Development and Aging
Burnham Institute for Medical Research
La Jolla, CA

“Probing the Genetic Basis of Arrhythmias and Congenital Heart Disease”
 
DATE:  Thursday, February 21, 2008
 
TIME:  3:30 p.m.
 
LOCATION:  Gold Auditorium, BioScience Center

HOST:  Dr. Mark Sussman

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Ecology Proposal Fest
THESIS PROPOSAL

Andrew Steyers

"Data requirements for robust population trend assessments"

DATE:  Friday, February 22

TIME:  9:00 am

LOCATION: LS 101

Committee Members:

Helen Regan (Chair), Biology
Janet Franklin, Biology
Allen Hope, Geography

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SDSU Molecular Biology Institute

Molecular Biology
Special Seminar

BIOPHYSICAL STUDIES OF VIRUS PARTICLES AND THEIR MATURATION:
INSIGHTS INTO ELEGANTLY PROGRAMMED NANOMACHINES

Date: Friday, February 22nd, 2008
Time: 3:30 pm
Location: GMCS 214

John E. Johnson
Professor, Department of Molecular Biology
The Scripps Research Institute

Abstract:

Complex virus particles such as HIV, Herpes Viruses and dsDNA
bacteriophages are programmed nanomachines that assemble in a fragile shell
that matures through a series of intermediates to form an infectious,
robust particle.  We have analyzed mature bacteriophage and intermediates
in maturation, defining the biophysical and mathematical nature of the
transitions and their driving forces.  Through chemistry and physics, these
particles shape an energy landscape resulting in a series of exothermic
transitions and a final maturation that relies on a Brownian ratchet. The
presentation will describe the synthesis of structural and other
biophysical data that leads to an understanding of emergent biological
behavior in terms of physics and chemistry.

Host: Joe Mahaffy
Co-host: Roland Wolkowicz