Fall 2021
The Quantitative and Systems Biology Seminar Series will be held Fridays, 2:30pm, COB2 140 or virtually. Contact Juris Grassis for virtual options.
10/1 Jeffrey Fredberg, Harvard School of Public Health. Host: Roberto Andresen Eguiluz. Virtual
10/8 Ariel Escobar, University of California, Merced. Host: Nestor Oviedo. In-Person
10/15 JGI Interns, University of California, Merced. Host: Zhong Wang. In-Person
10/22 Diane Campbell, University of California, Irvine. Host: Emily Moran. Virtual
10/29 Ruben Michael Ceballos, University of Arkansas. Host: Patti LiWang. In-Person
11/5 Bo Huang, University of California, San Francisco. Host: Stephanie Woo. Virtual
11/12 Virginia Weis, Oregon State University. Host: Juris Grasis. In-Person
11/19 Bennett Novitch, University of California, Los Angeles. Host: Xuecai Ge. In-Person
11/26 No Seminar, Thanksgiving Holiday.
12/3 Eric Bennett, University of California, San Diego. Host: Fred Wolf. In-Person
12/10 Mays Imad, Pima Community College. Host: Petra Kranzfelder. In-Person
Fall 2020
The Quantitative and Systems Biology Seminar Series will be held Fridays.
Friday October 30, 10:30 a.m.-12 p.m.
Ehab Abouheif, McGill University, Canada
Origin and role of a symbiotic relationship in a major evolutionary transition
Friday, November 20, 10:30 a.m.-12 p.m.
Scott Gilbert, Swarthmore College and Dania Matos, UCMerced
Evolution of Bias in the Sciences, roundtable discussion on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
Spring 2020
The Quantitative and Systems Biology Seminar Series will be held Fridays, 10:30-11:45 AM, in COB-110. Anna Beaudin and Emily Jane McTavish are the seminar series coordinators for the semester.
1/24/2020 - Rachel Meyer, UC Conservation Genomics Consortium. Host: Jay Sexton
1/31/2020 - Noah Whiteman, UC Berkeley. Host: Gordon Bennett
2/7/2020 - Petra Kranzfelder, UC Merced. Host: Seminar Commitee
2/14/2020 - Canceled
2/21/2020 - Grad Lightining talks for Grad Visitation Weekend. Host: Seminar Committee
2/28/2020 - Scott Roy, SFSU
3/6/2020 - Devavani Chatterjea, Macalester. Host: Jennifer Manilay
3/13/2020 - Kimberly Tanner, UC San Francisco. Host: RadioBio/SACNAS
3/20/2020 - Angela Stathopoulos, Caltech. Host: Stephanie Woo
3/27/2020 - Cesar Chavez Day, no seminar
4/3/2020 - Brent Mishler, UC Berkeley. Host: Jay Sexton
To access Brent Mishler's Seminar, click here for the Zoom recording.
4/10/2020 - Joseph Shen, UCSF. Host: Susan Ge
4/17/2020 - Gordon Bennet, UC Merced
4/24/2020 - Ken Cho, UC Irvine. Host: Nestor Oveiedo
5/1/2020 - Onn Brandman, Stanford. Host: Shahar Sukenik
5/8/2020 - Jeroen Saeij, UC Davis. Host: Kirk Jensen
Previous Seminars
Fall 2019
9/13/2019 - Ruth Timme, Food and Drug Administration. Host: Emily Jane McTavish
9/20/2019 - Roberto C. Andresen Eguiluz, UC Merced. Host: Seminar Committee
9/27/2019 - Jeramiah Smith, University of Kentucky. Host: Chris Amemiya
10/4/2019 - Jason Shepherd, University of Utah. Host: Ramen Saha
10/11/2019 - Angela Brooks, UC Santa Cruz. Host: Seminar Committee
10/18/2019 - Rachael Bay, UC Davis. Host: Jessica Blois
10/25/2019 - Nitin Phadnis, University of Utah. Host: Seminar Committee
11/1/2019 - Bin Chen, UC Santa Cruz. Host: Xuecai Ge
11/8/2019 - Dion Dickman, University of Southern California. Host: Fred Wolf
11/15/2019 - Sydney Glassman, UC Riverside. Host: Steve Hart
11/22/2019 - Frank Burbrink, American Museum of Natural History. Host : Dan Edwards
12/6/2019 - Ashkaan Fahimipour, UC Davis. Host: Justin Yeakel
12/13/2019 - Orion Weiner, UC San Francisco. Host: Stephanie Woo
Spring 2019
1/25/2019 – Ned Wingreen, Princeton U. Host: Ajay Gopinathan
2/1/2019 – Tyrone Hayes, UC Berkeley. Host: RadioBio
2/8/2019 – Eric Delwart, UC San Francisco. Host: Juris Grassis
2/15/2019 – Deborah Gordon, Stanford University. Host: Dave Ardell
2/22/2019 – Sam Wasser, U. Washington. Host: Chris Amemiya
3/1/2019 – Joanne Emerson, UC Davis. Host: Carolin Frank
3/8/2019 – Sara Baguskas, San Francisco State U. Host: Jason Sexton
3/15/2019 – Kaoru Saijo, UC Berkeley. Host: Anna Beaudin
3/22/2019 – Joseph Bondy-Denomy, UCSF. Host: Kirk Jensen
4/5/2019 – Kathryn Milligan-Myhre, U. Alaska. Host (Sabah Ul-Hasan and Angel Kongsomboonvech (graduate student-invited speaker)
4/12/2019 – Britt Koskella, UC Berkeley. Host: Mark Sistrom
4/19/2019 – Roberta Pelanda U. Colorado, Denver. Host: Katrina Hoyer
4/26/2019 – Todd Holmes, UC Irvine. Host: Andy LiWang
5/3/2019 – David Neale, UC Davis. Host: Emily Moran
Fall 2018
Aug. 24 – Faculty lightning talks
Aug. 31 – Faculty lightning talks
Sept. 7 – Allison Hansen, UC Riverside. It’s a small, small world: function of small RNAs in small genomes. Host: Gordon Bennett
Sept. 14 – Gregory Mutumi, UC Merced. Morphological diversification under high integration in a hyper diverse mammal clade. Host: Jessica Blois
Sept. 21 – Jacquelyn Gill, U. Maine. The once and future forests: ice age experiments for a warming world. Host: Jessica Blois
Sept. 28 – Shaeri Mukherjee, UC San Francisco. Turning pathogens into Cell Biology Tools. Host: Clarissa Nobile
Oct. 5 – Danielle Grotjahn, UC San Diego/Scripps. Host: Jing Xu
Oct. 12 – Whendee Silver, UC Berkeley. Host: Steve Hart
Oct. 19 – Shona Mokerjee, Touro U. Host: Miriam Barlow
Oct. 26 – TBD
Nov. 2 – Felipe Zapata, UC Los Angeles. Host: Emily Jane McTavish
Nov. 9 – Jarrod A. Dudakov, Fred Hutch Cancer Center. Host: Joel Spencer
Nov. 16 – Daron Freedberg, FDA. Host: Patti LiWang
Nov. 30 – Rajat Rohatgi, Stanford U. Host: Xuecai (Susan) Ge
Dec. 7 – Peter Bradley, UC Los Angeles. Hosts: Anh Diep and Angel Kongsomboonvech (graduate student-invited speaker)
Spring 2018
The Quantitative and Systems Biology Seminar Series will be held Fridays, 1:30-2:45pm, in SSM 104. Fred Wolf is the seminar series coordinator for the semester.
Jan 19 — Color vision in Heliconius erato: Genes, Physiology and Behavior Adriana Briscoe, UC Irvine Host: Dave Ardell
Jan 26 — Partnering as a Strategy to Increase the Impact of Research Peter Schuerman, UC Merced Host: Fred Wolf
Feb 2 —Flying Lizard Phylogenomics and Sulawesi Biogeography Jim McGuire, UC Berkeley Host: Dan Edwards
Feb 9 — Genomic control mechanisms that establish T-cell identity Ellen Rothenberg, Caltech Host: Jennifer Manilay
Feb 16 — No seminar
Feb 23 — Drunken Sailors, Coin Flips and How to Read Genomes Robert Phillips, Caltech Host: Ajay Gopinathan
Mar 2 — Negative regulation of B cell autoimmunity Julie Zikherman, UC san Francisco Host: Anna Beaudin
Mar 9 — Identification of a special Treg subset acting as stem cell protectants—possible therapeutic target for transplantation, tissue regeneration, and cancerJoji Fujisaki, Columbia Host: Katrina Hoyer
Mar 16 —Regulation of cell shape and virulence by temperature in the fungal pathogen Histoplasma capsulatum Anita Sil, UC San Francisco Host: RadioBio & SACNAS
Mar 23 — Genome Evolution in Animals Daniel Rokhsar, UC Berkeley Host: Chris Amemiya
Apr 6 — Good Drugs Gone Bad: Antimicrobial Resistance Research at Fresno State Tricia Van Laar, CSU Fresno Host: Mark Sistrom
Apr 13 — I will survive! A macroevolutionary perspective on the drought physiology of conifers and ferns Jarmila Pittermann, UC Santa Cruz Host: Emily Moran
Apr20 — Deconstruction of and modulation of thalamocortical circuits in Epilepsy Jeanne Paz, UC San Francisco Host: Ramen Saha
Apr 27 — Coexistence in close relatives: a nexus of historical and ecological processes Sharon Strauss, UC Davis Host: Jay Sexton
May 4 — Trait evolution in mimicry systems: A big data approach to the study of convergence Alison Davis Rabosky, Michigan Host: QSB Students
May 11 — No Seminar
Fall 2017
The Quantitative and Systems Biology Seminar Series will be held Fridays 1:30-2:45 in COB2 170. Jessica Blois is the seminar series coordinator for the semester.
8/25/17 — Fitness landscapes and the predictability of evolution. Claudia Bank, Gulbenkian Institute. Emily Jane McTavish hosting
9/1/17 — Faculty lightning talks
9/8/17 — Faculty lightning talks
9/15/17 — Seeing the grass through the trees: Effects of Neogene vegetation change on mammalian evolution in eastern Africa. Kevin Uno, CUNY. Justin Yeakel hosting
9/22/17 — Peter Schuerman, UC Merced Associate Vice Chancellor for Research and Economic Development Cancelled!
9/29/17 — Simple model systems provide insight into mechanisms of human neurodegenerative diseases. Aaron Gitler, Stanford University. Xuecai (Susan) Ge hosting
10/6/17 — The American Gut Project: Utilizing Citizen Science to Advance Our Understanding of the Role of the Human Microbiome in Health and Disease. Embriette Hyde, UCSD. Student Hosted!
10/13/17 — Linking molecules with morphology in the -Omics age: computational taxonomy pipelines for microbial metazoa. Holly Bik, UC Riverside. Emily Jane McTavish hosting
10/20/17 — Plant–Soil Microbe Interactions in Semi-Arid Systems: Who’s Driving the Bus? John Stark, Utah St. Steve Hart hosting
10/27/17 — Mechanical control of tissue morphogenesis. Otger Campas, UC Santa Barbara. Stephanie Woo hosting
11/3/17 — Disentangling proximate and evolutionary mechanisms of sexual dimorphism. Marie-Claire Chelini, UC President's Postdoctoral Fellow, UC Merced.
11/10/17 — No seminar: Veteran's Day
11/17/17 — Metabolic regulation of the circadian clock: rethinking your midnight snack. Joanna Chiu, UC Davis. Andy LiWang hosting
11/24/17 — No seminar: Thanksgiving
12/1/17 — How HIV evolves within a patient : fast adaptation, fitness costs, PrEP resistance and treatment success. Pleuni Pennings, San Francisco State U. Emilia Huerta-Sanchez hosting.
12/8/17 — Age-related stem cell dysfunction: lessons from Drosophila. Heinrich Jasper, Buck Institute. Fred Wolf hosting
Spring 2017
The Quantitative and Systems Biology Seminar Series will be held Fridays 12-1:20 in COB2 170. Fred Wolf is the seminar series coordinator for the semester.
1/27/17 — Surveying the Bioenergetic Landscape for New Therapeutic Targets. Nathan Lanning, CSU Los Angeles. Fabian Filipp hosting
2/3/17 — Mercedes Rincon, University of Vermont. Katrina Hoyer hosting
2/10/17 — Adaptation to changing climate in Arabidopsis thaliana. Johanna Schmitt, UC Davis. Emily Moran hosting
2/17/17 — Blind fish provide big insights. Suzanne McGaugh, University of Minnesota. Emily Jane McTavish hosting
2/24/17 — Identification of biological novelty using comparative genomics: Looking for the good stuff in genomes. Chris Amemiya, University of Washington. Nestor Oviedo hosting
3/3/17 — Chemo-Transcriptomic Methods to Measure RNA Structure Inside Living Cells. Rob Spitale, UC Irvine. Mike Cleary hosting
3/10/17 — Lizards as Model Organisms in Evolutionary and Ecological Studies. Jack Sites, Brigham Young University. Dan Edwards hosting
3/17/17 — Daniel Weinreich, Brown University. Suzanne Sindi hosting
3/24/17 — Pheromone Perception: Structure and Function of Pheromone-Binding Protein. Smita Mohanty, Oklahoma State University. Patti LiWang hosting
3/31/17 — No seminar
4/7/17 — Paul Ashwood, UC Davis. Student Hosted!
4/14/17 — Alex Nord, UC Davis. Neuro/Ramen Saha hosting
4/21/17 — Todd McDevitt, Gladstone Institute @ UCSF. Kara McCloskey hosting
4/28/17 — Multilayered B cell immunity to influenza virus infection. Nicole Baumgarth, UC Davis. Anna Beaudin hosting
5/5/17 — Artificial Cells from Paper. Anand Bala Subramaniam, UC Merced
Fall 2016
The Quantitative and Systems Biology Seminar Series is held Fridays from 1:30 - 2:45 pm in CLSSRM (COB) 267.
8/26/16 — No seminar. Students enrolled in the class should still attend for a brief organizational meeting.
9/2/16 — James Hurley, UC Berkeley. Structural snapshots of the HIV replication cycle. Patti LiWang hosting
9/9/16 — Hana El-Samad, UCSF. Anticipators and Procrastinators, Synthetic Biology and Big Data. Aaron Hernday hosting
9/16/16 — Rachel S. Friedman, University of Colorado Medical School. Modulating the dynamics of the autoimmune response in the pancreatic islets in type 1 diabetes. Katrina Hoyer hosting
9/23/16 — Yonggang Chang, UC Merced. A dynamic day of a three-protein circadian clock. Jessica Blois hosting
9/30/16 — Steve Finkel, USC. Mechanisms of Long-Term Survival & Evolution of Bacteria. Dave Ardell hosting
10/7/16 — Matthias Hess, UC Davis. Systems Microbiology Techniques for Enhanced Ecosystem Health. Clarissa Nobile hosting
10/14/16 — Elsa Cleland, UC San Diego. Plant invasions alter community and ecosystem responses to climate change. Jay Sexton hosting
10/21/16 — Rebecca Yang, Duke University. Optogenetics-assisted reinforcement learning in Drosophila. Fred Wolf hosting
10/28/16 — Sergei Nachaev, University of North Dakota. Beyond the promoter: regulating gene activation through transcriptional pausing. Ramen Saha hosting
11/4/16 — Kara Juneau, Roche Sequencing division. Morgan Quail and QSB Graduate Students hosting
11/18/16 — Marjorie Matocq, U. Nevada-Reno. Genetic and ecological interactions across woodrat hybrid zones. Jessica Blois hosting
12/2/16 — Steven Brown, UCSD. Cell Death and Division Site Maintenance in E. coli. Jing Xu hosting
12/9/16 — Alan Hastings, UC Davis. Justin Yeakel hosting
Spring 2016
*Non-standard dates and times are indicated
1/22/16 — Roger Tseng, UC Merced (PhD Dissertation Defense). Structural Basis of Day/Night transition in the Cyanobacterial Circadian Clock. Andy LiWang hosting
1/29/16 — No seminar scheduled
2/5/16 — Amro Hamdoun, UC San Diego. How the bad guys distract the bouncers: Persistent organic pollutants in yellowfin tuna from the Gulf of Mexico inhibit mammalian P-gp. QSB Graduate Students hosting
2/12/16 — Norman Ellstrand, UC Riverside. Is gene flow the most important evolutionary force in plants? Emily Moran hosting
2/19/16 — Michael Greenfield, University of Kansas. Chorusing emerges from receiver psychoacoustics: on the origin of elaborate forms of synchrony and alternation in acoustic animal species. Marilyn Fogel hosting
2/24/16, 3:30-4:30pm* — Laura Burrus & Carmen Domingo, SFSU. Connecting the dots: Linking the biochemistry and cell biology of Wnt lipid modifications to embryonic development. Laura Beaster-Jones hosting (KL360)
3/4/16 — Uma Ramakrishnan, NCBS, Bangalore. Understanding tiger conservation through a genetic lens. Jessica Blois hosting
3/11/16 — Tom Whitham, Northern Arizona University. Common garden arrays and community genetics approaches enable adaption to global change. Stephen Hart hosting
3/18/16 — Jean-Philippe Pellois, Texas A&M University. Cellular Trojan horses and trapdoors: transport of macromolecules into a cell by escaping the endocytic pathway. Ramen Saha hosting
4/1/16 — Ian Wang, UC Berkeley. The evolution of intraspecific color and toxin diversity in poison frogs. Danielle Edwards hosting
4/8/16 — Julie Simpson, UC Santa Barbara. The circuit logic of motor program selection in fly grooming behavior. Fred Wolf hosting
4/15/16 — Ben Chan, Yale. Mark Sistrom hosting
4/22/16 — Jon Zehr, UC Santa Cruz. Unusual marine nitrogen-fixing symbiosis: implications for evolution and global nitrogen fixation. Carolin Frank hosting
4/29/16 — Paul Straight, Texas A&M University. Battling Bacteria: Enzymatic and Chemical Interfaces. Andy LiWang hosting
5/6/16 — David Low, UC Santa Barbara. Mechanisms of contact-dependent communication between bacteria. Clarissa Nobile hosting
Fall 2015*
*This list will be updated as we receive more information about seminars. For students enrolled in QSB 291, there is no need to show up for class/seminar until the first talk on Sept. 11
**Non-standard dates and times are indicated
Sept. 11 — Dr. Sunil Gandhi, Opening a new critical period using inhibitory neuron transplantation. Ramendra Saha hosting
Oct. 16 — Dr. Susannah Tringe, Impact of salinity and restoration status on microbial greenhouse gas cycling in coastal wetlands. Carolin Frank hosting
Oct. 23 — Dr. Rakefet Schwarz, To be or not to be planktonic? Regulation of Biofilm Development in the Cyanobacterium Synechococcus elongatus. AndyLiWang hosting
Nov. 6 — Dr. Hana El-Samad. Aaron Hernday hosting [cancelled, to be rescheduled]
Nov. 13 — Dr. Tanya Woyke, The ABC of Single Cell Genomics. Carolin Frank hosting
Nov. 17** — 3pm, SE1 270. Stuart Gallagher, Centenary Institute, Tumor immunology of malignant melanoma. Fabian Filipp hosting
Nov. 20 — Dr. Denise M. Monack, Mechanisms of persistent Salmonella infection and transmission. Kirk Jensen hosting
Dec. 4 — Dr. Jonathan Maltzman, Regulatory T cells need more foxes than FOXP3. Katrina Hoyer hosting
Spring 2015
Jan 23 — Ivo Grosse Dave Ardell hosting
Feb 13 — Todd Lowe, UCSC Dave Ardell hosting
Feb 20 — Ulrike Luderer, UC Irvine Masashi Kitazawa hosting
Mar 20 — Elva Diaz, UC Davis Fred Wolf hosting
Apr 10 — Taekyung Kim, University of Texes Southwestern Ramendra Saha hosting
Apr 17 — Rob Gunsalus, UCLA. Miriam Barlow hosting
Apr 24 — Sarah Brown, UC Merced Jessica Blois hosting
May 1 — Yongjie Yang, Tufts University Masashi Kitazawa hosting
May 8 — Marcelo Wood, UC Irvine Ramendra Saha hosting
Fall 2014
Sep. 15 — Hillary Young (UCSB) "Cascading effects of biodiversity loss across spatial scales." Host: Jessica Blois
Oct. 10 — Jeff Coller (Case Reserve Western University) Hosts: Michael Cleary and David Ardell
Oct. 24 — Joel Rothman (UCSB) Host: Nestor Oviedo
Oct. 31 — Jing Wang (UCSD) Host: Fred Wolf
Nov. 7 — Diana Laird (UCSF) "Dynamic microenvironments in the development of the germ line." Host: David Ardell
Nov. 14 — Paul Knoephler (UC Davis) "A variant path to plasticity: histone H3.3 function in stem cells." Host: Ramen Saha
Nov. 21 — Isaac Pessah (UC Davis) Host: Masashi Kitazawa
Dec. 5 — Robert Tinoco (UCSD) Host: Katrina Hoyer
Dec. 12 — Kelley Tseng (UNLV) Host: Nestor Oviedo