Integrated Calendar

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a devastating disease with less than 10% of elderly patients survive five years. While AML originates from stem cells which evolve over many years it presents acutely due to the expansion of more committed progenitors. Over the recent years we were able to identify the origins of AML relapse, and also to study AML years before it is diagnosed. We now can predict AML 6 years before diagnosis. Future studies will soon provide evidence whether early treatment will be beneficial.

Oxford Nanopore Technologies aims to disrupt the paradigm of biological analysis. Our technology and commercial model has already opened up DNA analysis to researchers who previously had no direct access to sequencing technologies, freeing them up to perform analyses in their own labs or in the field, and in real time. We continually improve the technology performance, make it easier to use and expand the ways in which users can access nanopore sequencing. This technology pathway is designed to enable the analysis of any living thing, by any person, in any environment.

This seminar will introduce the world's first and only nanopore DNA sequencer, the MinION which is able to sequence DNA and RNA directly, without the need for PCR. It will include examples of the MinION’s portability, the opportunities that come from real-time analysis and how long reads meet some of the challenges that exist in genomic research today. It will show how this low-cost device that has been designed to bring easy biological analyses to anyone, whether in scientific research, education or a range of real-world applications such as disease/pathogen surveillance or even microgravity biology. The MinION is in use by a thriving community of scientists in more than 70 countries, where it is enabling a myriad applications within the traditional laboratory environment and in the field.

Nanopore sequencing is full scalable through the GridION X5 and PromethION which can be used to address sequencing projects of any size. Both these systems have flow cells that can be used independently or altogether for larger projects or anything in between. Large and small projects can be run at the same time, started at different times and run for as long as necessary to generate the data required.

Join us to learn:
• How nanopore sequencing works
• What makes it different
• The options for DNA and RNA sequencing
• How easy it is to scale experiments
• What’s involved in starting to use the technology

Light is the source of life on Earth, and is used in numerous ways in the plant and animal kingdoms for a variety of applications, including photosynthesis, vision, camouflage, communication, thermal management and more. As such, evolution has led to the creation of intricate optical systems with highly controlled and regulated properties. The talk will present an overview of some of these unique optical systems, focusing on the ubiquitous guanine-based optical reflectors and on mineral deposits in leaves of higher plants. In particular, correlated optical and structural characterization will be shown to reveal new information about the function of some of the more poorly understood biological light manipulation systems and to reveal clues about their evolution.