graduate

Interactions and Complexity of Small RNA

TYPEColloquium
Speaker:Prof. Erel Levine
Affiliation:Department of Physics and FAS Center for Systems Biology, Harvard UniversityOver the last years it h
Date:03.11.2014
Time:14:30
Location:Lidow Rosen Auditorium (323)
Abstract:

Over the last years it had become clear that small RNA molecules play


a central role in biology that has been overlooked for decades. Small


RNA systems are characterized by high density of interactions at


multiple scales, that collectively give rise to function. In this talk


I will describe our efforts to to learn how small RNA regulatory


functions stem from the structure of these underlying interactions.


After a brief review of the relevant biology, I will first address the


question how intra-molecular interactions determine the functional


properties of a small RNA, using a combination of quantitative


large-scale experiment and data-driven modeling. I will then turn to


discuss how the evolutionary imprint of genetic interactions can be


used to uncover regulatory strategies by solving an inverse problem of


statistical mechanics.