Events

September 30

HiLIFE webinar / iCAN seminar: Associate Professor James C. Costello

A novel mechanism of chemotherapy resistance by the regulation of volume regulated anion channels
Associate Professor James C. Costello from the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, USA will give a talk in the HiLIFE seminar series on September 30th at 13.00-14.00. The seminar is organised together with iCAN – Digital Precision Cancer Medicine.

50 portions of coffee and pulla will be served in front of the lecture hall 30 minutes prior to the seminar.

Dr. Costello is a Cancer Systems Biologist who has a balance of wet and dry research. His lab focuses on cancer genomics and pharmacology, including studying cancer development and progression in the wet lab and developing mechanistic computational models leveraging and integrating -omics data in the dry lab. His lab focuses on studying molecular subtypes in prostate cancer that drive aggressive disease and chemoresistance in bladder cancer. Dr. Costello also is the Co-Director of the Bioinformatics and Biostatistics Shared Resource through the University of Colorado Cancer Center and Co-Director of the Pharmacology and Molecular Medicine PhD Training Program.

View Dr. Costello's Publications on PubMed

View Dr. Costello's Google Scholar Page

 

Welcome to this exciting seminar!

Teemu Daniel Laajala



Start time: 30/09/2024 13:00
End time: 30/09/2024 14:00
Duration: 1 hour
Location: Biomedicum1, lecture hall 2, Haartmaninkatu 8, 00290 Helsinki
Type: Seminar
Organization: iCAN Flagship Team
Contact person: hilife-seminars@helsinki.fi
September 30

Special seminar by Masashi Yanagisawa, M.D., Ph.D.

Deciphering the mysteries of sleep: toward the molecular substrate for “sleepiness”

Masashi Yanagisawa, M.D., Ph.D.
International Institute for Integrative Sleep Medicine (WPI-IIIS), University of Tsukuba, Japan
Contact before/during the visit in Helsinki (29.–30.9.): jyrki.kukkonen@helsinki.fi
Personal introduction: In 1988, as a graduate student at University of Tsukuba, Yanagisawa discovered endothelin, which sparked an intense research activity in the field. After moving to University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas in 1991 as a young PI, he identified the endothelin-converting enzyme. In 1996, he initiated a systematic search for endogenous ligands of “orphan” G protein-coupled receptors, which resulted in his 1998 discovery of orexins, hypothalamic neuropeptides. He then discovered in 1999, in parallel with professor Emanuel Mignot, that orexin deficiency causes the sleep disorder narcolepsy. The discovery of orexins opened up a new avenue in sleep research, and led to a better understanding of sleep/wake switching mechanisms in the brain. Now, he pulls all his energy to solve the fundamental mechanisms of sleep homeostasis as a professor and the director of IIIS.

https://wpi-iiis.tsukuba.ac.jp/research/member/detail/masashiyanagisawa/
https://sleepymouse.jp/yanagisawa/

The visit of professor Yanagisawa is supported by Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS); the activities of JSPS are briefly presented before the seminar.

Abstract: Although sleep is a ubiquitous behavior in animal species with a nervous system, many aspects in the neurobiology of sleep remain mysterious. Our discovery of orexin, a hypothalamic neuropeptide involved in the maintenance of wakefulness, has triggered intensive research examining the exact role of the orexinergic and other neuronal pathways in the regulation of sleep/wakefulness. Orexin receptor antagonists, which specifically block the endogenous waking system, have been approved as a new drug to treat insomnia. Also, since the sleep disorder narcolepsy-cataplexy is caused by orexin deficiency, orexin receptor agonists are expected to provide mechanistic therapy for the disease; they will likely be also useful for treating excessive sleepiness due to other etiologies.
Even though the executive neurocircuitry and neurochemistry for sleep/wake switching, including the orexinergic system, has been increasingly revealed in recent years, the mechanism for homeostatic regulation of sleep, as well as the neural substrate for "sleepiness" (sleep pressure), remains unknown. To crack open this black box, we have initiated a large-scale forward genetic screen of sleep/wake phenotype in mice based on true somnographic (EEG/EMG) measurements. We have so far screened >10,000 heterozygous ENU-mutagenized founders and established several pedigrees exhibiting heritable and specific sleep/wake abnormalities. By combining linkage analysis and the next-generation whole exome sequencing, we have molecularly identified and verified the causal mutation in several of these pedigrees. Since these dominant mutations cause strong phenotypic traits, we expect that the mutated genes will provide new insights into the elusive pathway regulating sleep/wakefulness. Indeed, through a systematic cross-comparison of the SIK3 Sleepy mutants and sleep-deprived mice, we have found that the cumulative phosphorylation state of a specific set of mostly synaptic proteins may represent the molecular substrate of sleep pressure. We have also found that the neuronal molecular pathway LKB1-SIK3-HDAC4/5 may represent the level of sleep pressure, regulating the amount, depth, and timing of sleep by acting in different brain regions, respectively (Kim et al. Nature 612: 512-518, 2022; Zhou et al. Nature 612: 519-527, 2022).

Start time: 30/09/2024 14:00
End time: 30/09/2024 15:00
Duration:
Location: Biomedicum1, lecture hall 2, Haartmaninkatu 8, 00290 Helsinki
Type: Seminar
Organization: UH, Faculty of Medicine
Contact person: jyrki.kukkonen@helsinki.fi
October 01

Teaching Demonstrations of the Docentship Applicants

Docentship applicants give a demonstration of teaching skills as part of their application process. Demonstrations of teaching skills are open for all faculty members and students. Warmly welcome!
Program:
12.40-13.10 MD Jaakko Helve (field of docentship: Nephrology) topic: Human Eloonjäämisennuste munuaiskorvaushoidossa; target group: Nefrologiaan erikoistuvat lääkärit.
13.10-13.20 Break
13.20-13.50 MD Sonja Boyd (field of docentship: Pathology) topic: Primaarinen sklerosoiva kolangiitti - patologian merkitys diagnostiikassa ja seurannassa; target group: Patologiaan erikoistuvat lääkärit ja lääketieteen opiskelijat.
13.50-14.00 Break
14.00-14:30 PhD Per Harald Jonson (field of docentship: Medical Molecular Genetics) topic: TTN – a big gene with big issues; target group: PhD students.
Start time: 01/10/2024 12:40
End time: 01/10/2024 14:30
Duration: 1 hour 50 minutes
Location: remotely
Type: Docententship lecture
Organization: UH, Faculty of Medicine
Contact person: dosenttiasiat-ltdk@helsinki.fi
October 01

ReproducibiliTea UniHelsinki Journal Club

Welcome to the first instalment of Helsinki's brand-new ReproducibiliTea journal club! 

 

We warmly invite everyone (and especially Early Career Researchers) interested in discussing reproducibility in science to join us!

 

What? The first ReproducibiliTea UniHelsinki meeting:

Vootele Voikar will lead the discussion on the article "The Finnish Reproducibility Network (FIRN): A national bottom-up approach to scientific integrity in a global context" (suggested reading before meeting 🙂)

To make the discussions flow smoothly, we are offering coffee/tea and some snacks! For that, we invite you to register your attendance (not binding, but great help for planning the catering):

https://elomake.helsinki.fi/lomakkeet/131065/lomake.html

 

Please let us know by 25th September, but still come over even if you are late for the registration!

 

Should you have any questions, please feel free to contact our team.

(julia.koivula@helsinki.fi , henna.kallo@helsinki.fi , anastasiia.marmyleva@helsinki.fi , vootele.voikar@helsinki.fi )



Start time: 01/10/2024 14:00
End time: 01/10/2024 16:00
Duration: 1 hour
Location: Biomedicum Helsinki 1, meeting room Skutsi
Type: Other
Organization: UH, Faculty of Medicine
Contact person: julia.koivula@helsinki.fi , henna.kallo@helsinki.fi , anastasiia.marmyleva@helsinki.fi , vootele.voikar@helsinki.fi
October 02

COALES: Aalto-Helsinki iGEM Project 2024 - An Afternoon in The Science Basement

The Science Basement would like to invite you to listen and interact during an Afternoon in the Science Basement. The first speakers of the monthly fall series, Nisa Rashid and Nicholas Farrel Wijaya, from the field of Genetics and Molecular Biosciences, University of Helsinki, will present their work, ‘COALES: Aalto-Helsinki iGEM Project 2024’

Description: Our research focuses on leveraging naturally existing adhesive proteins for biomedical applications, such as drug-delivery systems. Inspired by bio-adhesives, we develop a liquid-liquid phase separation -based drug delivery system aimed to minimize side effects and improve patient outcomes, offering a significant advancement in the fight against cancer.

 

More info: follow our event on FB by clicking this link https://tinyurl.com/COALES-iGEMProject2024 email the organizing team at afternoons@thesciencebasement.org

P.S. Any PhD student from University of Helsinki or Aalto can give a talk (any topic), contact the email above to find out more ;) 



Start time: 02/10/2024 17:30
End time: 02/10/2024 19:00
Duration: 1 hour 30 minutes
Location: Tiedekulma, Yliopistonkatu 4, Helsinki
Type: Other
Organization: University of Helsinki
Contact person: mailto:afternoons@thesciencebasement.org