The Allergan Foundation Lecture in Modern Biology Series – “Strategies of Life: Old Questions Driving the New ‘Systems’ Biology”

Featuring
Arthur D. Lander, M.D., Ph.D.
Professor, Department of Developmental and Cell Biology and Director, Center for Complex Biological Systems, UC Irvine

Propelled by an unprecedented coalition of biologists, mathematicians, computer scientists, engineers and physicists, the new field of Systems Biology seeks to re-shape the way scientists think about life. Despite its focus on computer-age concepts such as “networks”, “complex systems”, and “emergent behaviors”, the most profound and lasting contribution of Systems Biology may come, ironically, from its re-invigoration of lines of biological inquiry that are centuries-old. Hear how Dr. Lander will discuss how the return of “strategic” thinking is changing the worlds of both science and medicine.

Tuesday, October 28, 2008
7:00 p.m. Lecture
Arnold and Mabel Beckman Center of the National Academies

The Ralph Gerard Lectureship Series – “Learning, Memory and the Brain”

Featuring
Erin Schuman, Ph.D.
Professor of Biology and Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, California Institute of Technology

The human brain contains about a hundred billion neurons. Information we learn about our environment is stored at synapses, the connections between brain cells. Synapses exhibit plasticity by varying in their size, strength, and number throughout the lifetime of humans and other animals. This plasticity contributes to our ability to learn and remember. Dr. Schuman’s lecture will describe how plasticity is studied in the laboratory as well as some of the mechanisms for information storage in the brain including changes in information transfer from one cell to the other and changes in neuron structure. Dr. Schuman will also describe brain recordings from human subjects while they are learning and remembering. These recordings indicate that sometimes the brain cells appear to “remember” information that the subject forgets.

Monday, November 3, 2008
7:00 p.m. Lecture
Arnold and Mabel Beckman Center of the National Academies

The School of Biological Sciences Mentor Program Kick-Off Reception

Keynote address given by mentor Linda Tran, D.D.S. ’88 and mentee Leah Parilla

Wednesday, November 12, 2008
6:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.
Doheny Rooms, UC Irvine Student Center

For information about these events, please contact the Bio Sci Special Events office at 949.824.2500 or biosci-events@uci.edu