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Have you ever wondered about the genetic diversity of animals such as ants, and how seemingly such a simple animal can develop such complex behaviours? And have you ever wondered why so much of biological research rests of zebrafish? And why is bioinformatics such a buzz word these days? What does it actually do? Come along to find out the answers to these questions and more!
No small fry: Fishing for gene function
Dr Elisabeth Busch-Nentwich
(Senior Lecturer in Organismal Biology)
The zebrafish is a powerful model system to study the genetics of development and disease. Even though they look so different humans and zebrafish share most of the genes that determine how embryos develop or how we respond to environmental stimuli. In my talk I will show how we use zebrafish together with functional genomics approaches to uncover gene-regulatory responses to mutations or infectious diseases. I will discuss how we can use zebrafish mutant screens to find genes involved in diverse diseases such as tuberculosis or addiction.
The fascinating societies of ants and their genetic blueprints.
Dr Yannick Wurm
(Reader in Evolutionary Genomics and Bioinformatics)
Ants live in “superorganismal” societies where the individual ants are parts of a greater whole. The 20000 species of ants are highly diverse, with tremendous variation in morphologies and society organisations. These societies can include 15 to millions individuals, and they have long evolved complex behaviors including farming, slave-making, queen selection through execution, combat rituals, and preventative self-sacrifice. I will highlight some of this diversity, and show how we use modern genomics and bioinformatics tools to understand how complex social behaviours function and evolved.
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