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PIMS Distinguished Public Lectures in Mathematical Biology: DNA unlinking in bacterial cells

Title:  

DNA unlinking in bacterial cells

Guest:  Dr. Mariel Vazquez,
San Francisco State University


When: April 23 (Wednesday) at 4:00 PM
Where: Room 106 Biology Building


Abstract:
Chromosomes are long, rod-shaped,DNA molecules encoding the genetic code of an organism. The genome of bacterium Escherichia coli (E. Coli) is encoded in one single circular chromosome. Multiple cellular processes such as DNA replication and recombination change the topology of circular DNA. In particular, newly replicated circular chromosomes are topologically linked. Controlling these topological changes, and returning the chromosomes to an unlinked monomeric state is essential to cell survival. The cell uses enzymes to simplify the topology of DNA. We use mathematical techniques from knot theory, aided by computational tools, to study the action of these enzymes.

Bio:

Dr. Vazquez, Associate Professor, Department of Mathematics, San Francisco State University, is the 2014 recipient of the Mohammad Dahleh Distinguished Lectureship at UC-Santa Barbara and a 2012 recipient of the U.S. Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE). For the latter, she was ``honored for excellent interdisciplinary and international research at the interface of mathematics and biology, and for creativity and dedication to recruiting, training, and mentoring, and helping students from underrepresented groups achieve their goals".
Prior to that, in 2011, she was awarded an NSF Career Award.

Dr. Vazquez obtained her B.Sc. in Mathematics from the National University of Mexico (UNAM), Mexico City in 1995 and then completed her Mathematics PhD in 2000 at Florida State University with Doctoral fellowships from DGAPA UNAM and the Program for Mathematics and Molecular Biology/Burroughs Wellcome Fund. Following this she was a Postdoctoral Fellow/Visiting Assistant Professor at UC-Berkeley and received an Exxon Mobil Project NExT Fellowship. She then joined the faculty at San Francisco State University in 2005. Since then she has also had numerous visiting positions including visits to the Biochemistry Department, University of Oxford and the Molecular Biology Department, CID/CSIC, Barcelona. This year she is on sabbatical as a long term visitor at the Institute for Mathematics and its Applications, Minneapolis, for the Thematic Year: Scientific and Engineering Applications of Algebraic Topology.

Her talk at the University of Saskatchewan is related to her recent co-authored publication: Shimokawa et al in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2013) 110 (52) 20906-20911

 Poster Here