What's happening at the university
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University traditions and myths
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Personality Development Festival 2018
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Lecture on MUNI AWARD: Studying the Hot and High-Energy Universe
Lecture Abstract In the course of structure formation, only a small fraction of the baryons turned into stars - most remain in a diffuse hot intergalactic medium (IGM). The growth and evolution of galaxies is controlled by feedback processes, such as energy and metal input to the IGM from supernovae, and from the jets and winds of accreting supermassive black holes. I will start my talk by showing observational results on the role of supermassive black holes in maintaining a delicate balance between heating and cooling in clusters of galaxies. I will present new measurements from the Hitomi satellite, which show that the jets emanating from the central supermassive black hole are stirring the hot intra-cluster medium. I will then present a novel way for monitoring gamma ray bursts - the most energetic explosions in the Universe, some of which are the electromagnetic counterparts of gravitational wave signals - using nano-satellites. Miniaturisation recently opened opportunities for novel breakthrough science using nanosatellites (often called ‘cubesats’), which are affordable also for small countries or universities. I will finish my talk by presenting a vision for a world- class high-energy astrophysics research group at Masaryk University, which is involved in the development of large space missions led by the European Space Agency - such as Athena - but also leads smaller nano-satellite projects to perform well focused breakthrough science.
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Mendel Lectures: "Artificial Genetics and Evolution in the New Millennium"
Mendel Lectures: "Artificial Genetics and Evolution in the New Millennium" Instituce: Foundation for Applied Molecular Evolution, Alachua, USA where: Refectory Mendel Museum, Mendel square 1a, Brno when: 17th May 2018, 5 p.m. who: Steven Benner Steven Albert Benner and his colleagues were the first to synthesize a gene, beginning the field of synthetic biology. He is interested in the origin of life and the chemical conditions and processes needed to produce RNA
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Mendel Lectures: "The Logic Of Gene Regulation"
“Mendel Lectures: The Logic Of Gene Regulation” Instituce: Sloan Kettering Memorial Cancer Center, New York, USA where: Refectory Mendel Museum, Mendel square 1a, Brno when: 3 May 2018, 5 p.m. who: Mark Ptashne Mark Ptashne is a molecular biologist and violinist. He was the first scientist to demonstrate specific binding between protein and DNA
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Mendel Lectures: "The Cell Biology of the Genome"
“Mendel Lectures: The Cell Biology of the Genome” Instituce: National Cancer Institute, NIH, Bethesda, USA where: Refectory Mendel Museum, Mendel square 1a, Brno when: 19th April 2018, 5 p.m. who: Tom Misteli Tom Misteli, Ph.D. is a Swiss-born cell biologist and pioneer in the field of genome cell biology. He is best known for his work on elucidation of how genomes function in living cells.
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Lecture on MUNI AWARD: Mechanisms of skeletal growth: from stem tetrapods to stem cell niches
Mechanisms of skeletal growth: from stem tetrapods to stem cell niches. By Andrei Chagin Childhood growth occurs in small discs of cartilage, so-called epiphyseal growth plates, located near the ends of all long bones in the body and consisting of chondrocytes. Articular cartilage covers the end of bones and serves for their articulation. These structures are separated from each other by a bony element called epiphysis or secondary ossification center. However, in the beginning of evolution of tetrapods both these cartilaginous structures constituted a single element. Why the growth plate evolved as a separate organ is not clear. By bringing together an evolutionary approach with comparative analysis of whales and bats, mathematical modeling including growth of dinosaurs, and both physical and biological experiments we revealed that separation of epiphyseal cartilage into a separate organ protects chondrocytes from mechanical stress associated with weight bearing. At the same time such a separation limits the number of chondro-progenitors, which are substituted by the bony epiphysis. To understand how mammals grow with limited number of chondro-progenitors we explored the cellular kinetics in the growth plate employing clonal genetic tracing with Confetti mice. Those experiment revealed that the bony epiphysis creates a stem cell niche, which allows chondro-progenitors to renew themselves for the entire growth period, e.g. 18 years in humans or lifetime in rodents. Summarizing, our data suggest that in order to be able to grow on land tetrapods developed the growth plate into a separate structure, but to overcome growth limitations associated, they evolved a new stem cell niche.
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Daniel Král: lecture „Models of large networks“
Models of large networks Daniel Kral A graph is a mathematical model of a network of nodes, which can be, e.g., a computer network or a social network. Problems concerning networks of enormous sizes, which more and more often arise in computer science applications, led to a need to find new mathematical tools to represent and analyze large graphs. The theory of graph limits, whose foundations were laid at Microsoft Research about a decade ago, has responded to these challenges by developing analytic models of large graphs. We will provide a brief self-contained introduction to the theory of graph limits, which will be followed by the exposition of the most major lines of research. We will conclude with presenting solutions of some of the most significant open problems in the area.