EMBL Seminars

Abstract
The adaptive immune responses mediated by T lymphocytes play a critical role in host protection against pathogens and tumors. Following activation by antigens, naïve CD8+ T lymphocytes establish specific heritable gene expression programs that define the progression to long-lasting memory or to short-lived effector subsets. Understanding the lineage relationships between the distinct CD8+ T cell subsets, and the underlying molecular pathways that regulate effector function, circulation and tissue residency programs is essential for the rational design of novel vaccines and new immune-therapeutic protocols. Recent results and new perspectives will be discussed in the context of long-term memory in infections and cancer.

Abstract
For decades, differences in health outcomes have been attributed primarily to inherited genetics. Yet large-scale analyses such as the UK Biobank exposome study reveal that our total life experience — encompassing social interactions, living conditions, and emotional states — accounts for nearly an order of magnitude more variation in mortality than genetic risk alone. This talk introduces the emerging field of Affective Immunology (www.affectiveimmunology.com), which explores how environmental and psychosocial factors leave a measurable biological imprint on the immune system. Drawing on experimental models of enriched environments, social isolation, and social fear, I will present evidence that distinct living conditions reprogram immune cell behaviour, inflammatory gene expression, and host defence against infection. I will also discuss how these findings open new avenues for identifying druggable targets inspired by the biology of health and wellbeing, with implications for the compression of morbidity and the design of next-generation therapeutics.

Abstract
Bridging the concentration gap between the dispersed state of intrinsically disordered biopolymers and their high-concentration states relevant for cellular environment, including membrane-less organelles, as well as for food biochemistry and food technology, is a serious challenge. In this talk, I will present an approach based on the conventional and newly developed pulse EPR techniques and aimed to describe the spatial and conformational distributions in biomolecular condensates and weak aggregates. This methodology can potentially also shed light on the biomolecules’ solvation. Furthermore, comparison of pulse EPR data with small angle scattering and THz calorimetry data might appear very interesting. Importantly, new EPR method to determine local biopolymer density will be presented, which might appear an efficient support for SAXS/SANS based determination of conformational ensembles of intrinsically disordered biomolecules.

About the speaker
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Attachments
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Connection details
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Abstract
Professionals working in core facilities and scientific services will share their career paths and experiences transitioning from academia into service-oriented scientific roles. Join this webinar to gain insights into daily work in core facilities, the skills required to succeed, key differences compared to PhD or postdoctoral research, and practical advice for those considering a similar career move.

Please register for this zoom webinar: https://embl-org.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_f2QNItDPSoq0EUxi5qPfdw

Please note that the talk will be recorded.
*For the FAQ section, as a zoom participant, please use either the chat function (the host will read out your question).

Abstract
Super-resolution microscopy has opened new possibilities for visualizing chromatin architecture in situ at nanoscale resolution. Leveraging quantitative super-resolution imaging, we revealed the heterogeneous nature of nucleosome folding and demonstrated that chromatin structure at both nano- and meso-scales is highly plastic, dynamically remodeling in response to chemical and mechanical cues in health and disease. By combining biologically interpretable feature extraction with machine learning, we further showed that cells can be accurately classified into distinct states based solely on their multi-scale chromatin organization, while also identifying the specific chromatin features that drive classification, thus offering mechanistic insight into cell-state regulation.

Abstract

Epigenetic components regulate many biological phenomena during development and normal physiology. When dysregulated, epigenetic components can also accompany or drive diseases. One main class of epigenetic components are Polycomb group proteins. Originally, Polycomb proteins were shown to silence gene expression. We found that this function involves the regulation of 3D chromosome folding and we found that Polycomb components can induce the formation of long-distance interactions or chromatin loops that may play instructive roles in gene regulation as well as serve as scaffolding elements that contribute to enhancer-promoter specificity. Perturbation of Polycomb components is involved in human cancer and leads to tumorigenesis in flies. Surprisingly, even upon a transient depletion followed by restoration of the full Polycomb compendium, epithelial cells lose their normal differentiated fate, continue proliferating and establish aggressive tumors, demonstrating that cancer can have a fully epigenetic origin. Similarly, transient perturbation of histone acetylation in mouse ES cells and gastruloids shows that they can record chromatin changes and that this results in cellular memory of the perturbation states. The implication of these data will be discussed.