To celebrate 2019 as the International Year of the Periodic Table, the College of Sciences and the Georgia Tech Office of the Arts have partnered to infuse the 2019 Clough  Art Crawl with the spirit of the periodic table. 

The annual Art Crawl serves as a unique opportunity for Georgia Tech students to showcase their artistic talents. The theme for the Spring 2019 exhibition is Art Meets Science. In conjunction with Georgia Tech's year-long celebration of the International Year of the Periodic Table of the Chemical Elements, a special section of the Spring exhibition will be devoted to art inspired by the periodic table or a chemical element.

The Art Crawl features art from all students in the following categories:

Visual Art – drawings, paintings, and photography
Digital Art – code-based art, animation, film, and graphic design
Structural Art – sculpture, architecture, crafts, and textiles
Literary Works – poetry/prose, comics, and short stories
Performance Art – dance, live instrumentation, vocal performance, music production, and theater

The exhibit will open on March 14, 2019, at 4 PM. The Art Crawl will award prizes to winners in each category. In addition, College of Sciences will present awards for the top submissions in the special section on the periodic table. Winners will be announced on March 25, 2019.

The visual, digital, structural, and literary art works wil be exhibited through July 31, 2019 at Clough Commons. 

The evolution of complex life is an inherently multidisciplinary problem encompassing a wide range of topics, including:

• How do new levels of the biological hierarchy evolve?
• How do interactions between individual organisms contribute to complex phenotypes and behaviors?
• How do social behaviors evolve?
• How do evolutionary novelties emerge and evolve?
• How do organisms drive geochemical cycles and how do geochemical changes influence evolution?

This conference brings together scientists from different backgrounds to discuss these and other important topics about one of the most salient aspects of life: the evolution of complexity.

Register at http://eclife.biosci.gatech.edu/registration/ 

Conference Program

Below are the topics and confirmed speakers for the conference sessions.The detailed program will be available by April 15, 2019. Please check back at http://eclife.biosci.gatech.edu/program/ for updates.

The evolution of biological complexity

• Daniel McShea (Duke University)
• Ricard Solé (UPF Barcelona)

Mechanisms driving evolutionary innovations

• Joanna Masel (University of Arizona)
• Betül Kacar (University of Arizona)

Social evolution across scales

• Martin Nowak (Harvard University)
• Jeff Gore (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

Evolutionary transitions

• Benjamin Kerr (University of Washington)
• Ozan Bozdağ (Georgia Institute of Technology)

Dynamics and evolution of Earth-systems

• Andrew Knoll (Harvard University)
• Jenny McGuire (Georgia Institute of Technology)

Principles of social evolution

• Anna Dornhaus (University of Arizona)
• Sam Díaz‐Muñoz (University of California – Davis)

Origins and nature of life

• Irene A. Chen (University of California – Santa Barbara)
• Sarah Keller (University of Washington)

Information dynamics in evolution

• Sara I. Walker (Arizona State University)
• Carlos Gershenson (UNAM México City)

Organizing and Scientific Committees

The members of the organizing and scientific committees are graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and professors from three schools within the College of Sciences of Georgia Tech.

Organizing Committee

•  Peter Conlin (School of Biological Sciences)
• Zijian Li (School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences)
• Jennifer Pentz (School of Biological Sciences) 
• Pedro Márquez-Zacarías (School of Biological Sciences) 
• Gabi Steinbach (School of Physics)

Scientific Committee

• William Ratcliff  (School of Biological Sciences),
• Chris Reinhard (School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences)
• Peter Yunker (School of Physics)

More information at http://eclife.biosci.gatech.edu/

Ann Chen, Ph.D.
Department of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics
Moffitt Cancer Center

Abstract
Single-cell technologies allow characterization of genomics, transcriptomes, and epigenomes for individual cells under different conditions and provide unprecedented resolution for researchers.  We will first introduce an interactive toolbox SinCHet, which we develop to analyze single cell data for studying heterogeneity using Shannon Profile of at different resolutions.  A novel D statistic using area under the Profile of Shannon Differences is devised to detect heterogeneity differences between conditions.   Recently, we generalize this tool by implementing de-batching and subpopulation-comparison modules in SinCHet-MS for analyzing single cell mass spectrometry (SCMS) metabolomics data. These suites of tools provide insights into emerging or disappearing subpopulations between conditions, and enable the prioritization of biomarkers for follow-up experiments based on heterogeneity or marker differences between and/or within sub-populations.  Two datasets will be discussed during the first part of the talk.  The first dataset is a single cell mRNA (scRNA) dataset from two melanoma cell lines and mouse models. The analyses show that melanomas consisted of multiple transcriptional states that they have different drug sensitivities and growth dynamics under drug. The heterogeneity analyses further showed that tumor size in the melanoma mouse model is negatively associated with transcriptional diversity.  The second dataset is a SCMS dataset from two colon cell lines.  Although unbiased profiling is powerful, we showed that initial experimental design with careful de-batching first is still essential to gain biological insights from single cell data.     

As data dimensionality increase quickly, the number cells and genes for scRNA-seq quickly rise to tens of thousands easily (e.g., 10X genomics), analyses become the rate-limiting step.  The combination of parameters for nonlinear models is large to investigate.   We employ a JavaScript-based solution, Single Cell Visual Analytics (SCVA), to create an enriched and fast online environment to allow the experts interactively investigate various aspects of their single cell data, including exploring combinations of different parameters for t-SNE projections in real time, cell type recognition, and tumor-environment change in response to treatments in patient samples.  Analyses of scRNA-seq analyses in patient samples collected on baseline and day 8 on-treatment tumor biopsies show increase in immune cell influx (CD4+ and CD8+ T-cells) and a decrease in number of cancer cells on treatment.  

About the Speaker
Dr. Chen’s research has been focused on developing statistical methods and computational tools to incorporate multiple omics sources, select biologically relevant markers, and predict clinical outcomes in a unified framework.  Her work on Bayesian methodological development of data integration for regulatory network inference and pathway and gene selection for cancer survival prediction facilitates the identification of deregulated pathways with therapeutic relevance in subsets of human cancer.  Dr. Chen’s work on nonparametric method improvement for the detection of nonlinear correlation has enabled the identification of key genes for the development of pathological conditions, which might have been missed by traditional methods to detect merely linear relationships.  Dr. Chen’s recent work is focused on developing methods to use next gen- sequencing and other omics data to identify novel targetable pathways for melanoma patients, especially for those who did not have commonly known driver mutations.  

Alireza Zamani
Ratcliff Lab

Abstract
The evolution of multicellular life from single-celled ancestors is one of the most radical shifts in the history of life on earth, and sets the stage for evolution of more complex life forms. Despite the significance of this transition, we know little about the process by which cells first assemble groups and form multicellular organisms. We study this problem experimentally; a single mutation in the ACE2 gene of Baker’s yeast S. cerevisiae prevents mother and daughter cells from separating after cellular division. These yeast clusters, called ‘snowflake’ yeast, comprise a few hundred cells and grow to a maximum diameter of 200 microns. To evolve larger multicellular size, snowflake yeast clusters must mitigate forces strong enough to fracture cell-cell bonds. After a year of artificial selection for larger multicellular size, five populations of snowflake yeast surprisingly evolved to grow to a maximum diameter of 1 mm. In this work we investigate how nascent multicellular clusters evolve to overcome substantial mechanical constraints and dramatically increase their size.

The 2019 Women in Science and Technology (WST) Distinguished Lecturer is Maria Zuber. 

Maria Zuber is the E.A. Griswold Professor of Geophysics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She is also MIT's vice president for research, responsible for research administration and policy. She oversees the MIT Lincoln Laboratory and more than a dozen interdisciplinary research laboratories and centers.

Zuber's research bridges planetary geophysics and the technology of space-based laser and radio systems. Since 1990, she has held leadership roles with scientific experiments or instrumentation on 10 NASA missions, mapping the Moon, Mars, Mercury, and several asteroids. Notably, she was principal investigator of the Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory or GRAIL mission.

Her numerous awards include MIT's James R. Killian Jr. Faculty Achievement Award, the highest honor MIT bestows to its faculty. She is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Philosophical Society,. She is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Geological Society, and the American Geophysical Union.

Zuber is the first woman to lead a science department at MIT and to lead a NASA planetary mission. In 2013, President Obama appointed her to the National Science Board. In 2018 ,she was reappointed by President Trump. She served as board chair from 2016 to 2018.

This lecture is co-sponsored by the College of Sciences. 

Reception follows lecture. RSVP: mary.fox@gatech.edu

About the WST Distinguished Lecture Series
This lecture series honors outstanding contributors to understandings of, and positive impact for, women, science, and technology. It is an annual event open to the Georgia Tech community and the public.

Your ghost host with the most, Professor Morte', brings you a special SCIENCE version of the Silver Scream Spookshow for the Atlanta Science Festival! Morte' and his gang of ghouls will entertain you before the film and your favorite genetically-modified rock band, Leucine Zipper and the Zinc Fingers, will play before the show!

The band features College of Sciences' Michael Evans, Jennifer Leavey, and Joe Mendelson.

Tickets available at the door. Doors open at 1 p.m.

Note: This is the matinee show. A second show will take place at 10 p.m.

More information

This interdisciplinary colloquium and networking event has two goals: (1) to forge connections across Georgia Tech straddling the boundaries between technology development and hypothesis testing in the search for life’s beginnings and (2) to explore collaborative ideas among participants.

The event has two sections: (1) space exploration technology and planetary science and (2) the chemistry and biology of the origins and the search for life. The event comprises presentations and talks by early-career scientists – graduate students, undergraduates, and postdoctoral fellows – working in the exciting fields of space and planetary science, engineering, and astrobiology across Georgia Tech and greater Atlanta.

Confirmed Plenary Speakers

Distinguished members of the global astrobiology community will deliver plenary lectures. Confirmed speakers include:

Kevin Hand is a deputy project scientist at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He founded the nonprofit organization Cosmos Education and was its president until 2007.

As a planetary scientist and astrobiologist, his research focuses on numerical modeling, laboratory experiments, and instrument development to advance our understanding of the physics and chemistry of icy moons in the outer solar system. He is also interested in characterizing the connection between terrestrial cryosphere processes and the climate change record.

He is currently involved in projects connected to NASA’s Europa mission which will conduct detailed investigation on whether the icy moon could harbor conditions suitable for life.

Sara Walker is an assistant professor in the School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University (ASU). She is deputy director of ASU’s Beyond Center for Fundamental Concepts in Science, and associate director of the ASU-Santa Fe Institute Center for Biosocial Complex Systems.

She co-founded the astrobiology-themed social website SAGANet and is a member of the board of directors of Blue Marble Space Institute of Science.

Her work centers on in the origin of life and how to find life on other worlds. She is most interested in whether there are “laws of life” – related to how information structures the physical world – that could universally describe life here Earth and other planets.

She is active in public engagement in science, with appearances at the World Science Festival, the television series “Through the Wormhole,” and the public radio program “Science Friday.”

Paul Steffes is a professor in the Georgia Tech School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. He performed his doctoral research at Stanford University, where he concentrated on microwave radio occultation experiments using the Voyager and Mariner spacecraft, with specific interest in microwave absorption in planetary atmospheres.

In 1982, he joined the faculty of Georgia. His research, focusing on microwave and millimeter-wave remote sensing and radio astronomy, has been sponsored by NASA, NSF, the SETI Institute, and industry.

He has been involved with numerous NASA missions, including Pioneer-Venus, Magellan, the Advanced Communications Technology Satellite (ACTS), the High Resolution Microwave Survey (HRMS), and Juno (Jupiter Polar Orbiter).

Registration and Abstract Submission

Registration for the 2019 Exploration and Origins Colloquium is open. Please note:

• Abstracts must be no more than 2000 characters including spaces.
• Abstracts will be accepted as written, so please check for spelling and grammar.
• No e-mails or PDF uploads are allowed.

To submit an abstract and register as a presenter, click here.

For general registration (for those who are not presenters), click here.

Locations:

Keynote and oral presentations will take place in room 1005, Krone Engineered Biosystems Building (EBB), 950 Atlantic Drive, NW, Atlanta. GA 30332.

The poster session and networking event will be in held in the first- and second-floor atriums of the Molecular Science and Engineering Building (MoSE), 901 Atlantic Drive NW, Atlanta, GA 30318.

For more information, visit the website here. For other questions, contact us

Organizing Committee

• Peter Colin, postdoctoral fellow, School of Biological Sciences
• Zijian Li, Ph.D. student, School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences
• Tyler Roche, Ph.D. student, School of Chemistry and Biochemistry
• Micah Schaible, postdoctoral fellow, School of Chemistry and Biochemistry
• Pengxiao Xu, Ph.D. student, School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences
• George Zaharescu, postdoctoral fellow, School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences

Faculty Advisor: Martha Grover, professor, School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering

Young Jang, Ph.D.
School of Biological Sciences
Goergia institute of Technology

Abstract
Mitochondrial biology has become an intense area of research owing to its unique physiological and pathophysiological roles in a variety of disease conditions. In this seminar, I will review the current literature on some of the non-conventional roles of mitochondria that are possibly stemmed from endosymbiosis (i.e., mitochondrial-derived peptides, mitochondrial proteostasis, intercellular mitochondrial transfer). I will also discuss some of the ways we can exploit these features of mitochondria as a therapeutic intervention.

Cookies and coffee will be served.