Seminar CeNT 5.03.2021
01 marca 2021The Centre of New Technologies invites to a webinar by
Marta Szulkin, PhD,
Centre of New Technologies, University of Warsaw
Title: Life on our Doorstep – Urban Ecology & Evolution
Date: 5th March 2021 (Friday)
Time: 12:00 pm (Central European Time)
Host: prof. Joanna Trylska
Virtual seminar: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84013245889
Meeting ID: 840 1324 5889
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Abstract: By 2050, 7 out of 10 people will be living in urban areas. Urban space is thus of intrinsic interest to humans worldwide, biologists included. It is also an environment with radically altered ecological dynamics relative to original natural habitat. Here, I will present evidence illustrating the profound effects of urbanisation on wildlife. First, I will set the scene by discussing methodological strengths and challenges of capturing environmental and biological variation in an urban setting. Second, I will show how city life affects the phenotype, microbiota and fitness in a gradient of urbanisation in the city of Warsaw, Poland, and discuss estimates of selection differentials quantified in low and highly urbanised environments. Third, I will discuss the concept that urban environments represent globally replicated, large-scale disturbances to the landscape, thereby providing an ideal opportunity to study parallel evolution in natural populations. By using great tits (Parus major) and blue tits (Cyanistes caeruleus) as study systems, I will present data on the effect of urbanisation in a suite of biological traits measured in a replicated framework of 8 cities. Finally, I will close off by discussing how cities represent a fascinating frontier for investigating parallel evolution across the Tree of Life.
An announcement for PhD student positions
Project Manager – prof. Karol Grela (Head of Organometallic Synthesis Laboratory, Faculty of Chemistry, University of Warsaw) is looking for candidates to work in a scientific project: „Unorthodox concepts in olefin metathesis”, programme Maestro supported by National Science Centre positions: PhD student (2). Deadline for applications: 30 April 2021. For more info see >> pdf
Seminar CeNT 26.02.2021
22 lutego 2021The Centre of New Technologies invites to a webinar by
Piotr Setny, PhD,
Centre of New Technologies, University of Warsaw
Title: Structural determinants of influenza virus fusion peptide activity
Date: 26th February 2021 (Friday)
Time: 12:00 pm (Central European Time)
Host: prof. Joanna Trylska
Virtual seminar: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85624784389
Meeting ID: 856 2478 4389
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Abstract:
Membrane fusion is necessary for the entrance of influenza virus into host cell. It is mediated by the hemagglutinin protein, whose N-terminal fragments of only 20-23 amino acids length have long been known to induce fusion on their own and are thus called fusion peptides. Accumulated data suggest that influenza fusion peptides adopt kinked structures whose actual bending angle and orientation within the membrane vary depending on a number of subtle factors. One of them are amino acids mutations, in particular those that lead to fusion deficient phenotype. In spite of ongoing efforts, the details of peptide-lipid interactions and their role in membrane fusion remain elusive, hampering our understanding of this key event in viral life cycle.
Using the combination of extensive all atom, explicit solvent molecular dynamics simulations and experimental methods we investigate peptides free energy landscape, lipid order perturbation, and fusion efficacy. We suggest that peptides activity may be directly related to their ability to at least transiently penetrate membrane core, and we demonstrate that this ability is lost as an effect of a known, function-loss W14A mutation. Our findings provide physical interpretation for structure-activity relationships for variants of influenza fusion peptide, thus contributing to understanding of fusion mechanism.
Online meeting with Vice-Rector on 22nd February
17 lutego 2021
Prof. Sławomir Żółtek, the University of Warsaw Vice-Rector for Students and Quality of Teaching, will clear up any doubts that might appear regarding the organisation of classes in the coming semester during an online meeting on 22nd February.
On 18th January, the UW Rector issued an ordinance regulating education in the summer semester (starting on 22nd February). The winter semester is coming to an end, followed by the examination session. The organisation of classes in the summer semester still raises many questions.
Prof. Slawomir Żółtek, the Vice-Rector for Students and Quality of Teaching, will strive to explain how education after the winter break will look.
The event which was supposed to take place on 29th January is postponed to 22nd February, 11:00. It will be held on the UW profile on Facebook.
Students can submit their questions by filling in the form which is active until 26th January, at 18:00. Prof. Sławomir Żółtek will answer selected questions during the meeting.
The online meeting will be conducted in Polish. When it is finished, a full transcript of the broadcast in Polish and English will be available. More >>
Source: www.en.uw.edu.pl
Make it visible! Promotion and communication project
16 lutego 2021Dear Students,
Welcome Point and The Volunteer Centre of The University of Warsaw opens up application for the last places in the Make it visible! – series of online workshops on the topics such as promotion and communication, cross-cultural skills and video making. The grand finale of the project will be a preparation of an official video promoting extracurricular activities among the academic community.
When and where?
We will meet every two weeks on Wednesdays afternoons, starting from March up to May.
If you qualify for the workshops, we will send you a link to the meeting platform.
How to join the project?
There is a two-step application process:
1. First, fill in registration form: https://forms.gle/XPrDwyTXhU8XAc5C9
Deadline: February 21, 2021 11:59pm (23:59, CET)
2. Secondly, we will invite chosen participants for the online interviews in order to get to know each other and present the details of the project.
In case of any questions please contact us via email: welcome.event@uw.edu.pl
Also if you would like to join but you’re busy on Wednesdays, please contact us and let us know when you are available.
More information: http://welcome.uw.edu.pl/make-it-visible-last-free-places/
Best regards,
Welcome Point & Volunteer Centre of the University of Warsaw
Seminar CeNT 12.02.2021
08 lutego 2021The Centre of New Technologies invites to a webinar by
prof. Daniela Pollak,
Professor for Behavioral Biology, Department for Neurophysiolgy and –pharmacology,
Center for Physiology and Pharmacology, Medical University of Vienna, Austria
Title: STAT3 in the serotonergic system modulates emotional reactivity relevant to mood and psychotic disorders
Date: 12th February 2021 (Friday)
Time: 12:00 pm (Central European Time)
Host: Prof. Marta B. Wiśniewska
Virtual seminar: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88177457671
Meeting ID: 881 7745 7671
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Abstract:
Mental illness represents a growing disease burden globally, yet many patients do not seek treatment or do not respond to current treatment options. Finding new strategies to improve the quality of life of those affected remains challenging as our understanding of the pathophysiological processes is still limited.
Recently, the idea has emerged that studying common symptom complexes rather than distinct disease entities may be useful to disentangle underlying neurobiological mechanisms. For instance, increasing evidence suggests that mood disorders such as major depressive disorder (MDD) and bipolar disorder (BP), and psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia (SCZ), all of which are characterised to some degree by affective symptoms, may arise as the result of partially overlapping pathophysiological mechanisms.
Signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) is a ubiquitously expressed transcription factor, activated by a range of immunogenic and non- immunogenic stimuli. In addition to notable roles in cancer and a number of processes relevant to neural function, in rodents STAT3 activity has been linked to behaviours pertinent to mood regulation by several lines of evidence. Here, we investigated whether STAT3 signalling within the serotonergic system, which is deeply involved in the control of affective behaviours, may regulate neurobiological processes contributing to altered phenotypes in behavioural paradigms relevant to mood and psychotic disorders.
Using conditional gene knockout and viral-mediated approaches in mice, we targeted STAT3 expression in the midbrain dorsal raphe (DR), containing the majority of cell bodies of serotonergic neurons in the brain. Mice constitutively lacking STAT3 in serotonergic cells (STAT3 KO) were less reactive in their behavioural responses in paradigms relevant to stress coping and showed a diminished locomotor sensitisation response to d-amphetamine compared to controls, while serotonergic firing activity in the DR was increased in STAT3 KO. Analysis of transcriptional changes in the DR of STAT3 KO revealed a disproportionate presence of genes linked to biological processes highly relevant to neuropsychiatric disorders. Subsequent viral-mediated knockdown of STAT3 in adult mice produced the same behavioural effects as the germline genetic knockout strategy, suggesting that short-term disruption of STAT3 activity in the DR was sufficient to induce the observed behavioural changes.
Taken together, we suggest that DR STAT3, via the transcriptional control of genes and gene networks pertinent to cell excitability and synaptic function, may constitute a molecular link between upstream modulators of STAT3 activity, serotonergic neurotransmission and the control of behaviours relevant to psychopathology.
Employee Capital Plans at UW
02 lutego 2021As of 1st January 2021, the University of Warsaw, as a public university, has been made subject to the Act of 4th October 2018 on Employee Capital Plans (ECP; Pracownicze Plany Kapitałowe, PPK, in the Polish language).
ECP is a voluntary long-term saving programme, developed and co-financed by employees (employees and contractors subject to obligatory social insurance), employers and the state. Payments financed by the employees, the employer, a welcome payment and an annual surcharge from the state, will be transferred to individual private ECP accounts.
ECP is the programme that gathers ECP participants’ savings regularly. After exceeding the age of 60, one can withdraw funds. There are also other objectives of ECP stated in the above mention act.
Pursuant to the Act on Employee Capital Plans, employed persons are persons obligatorily subject to retirement pension and disability pension in the Republic of Poland:
- Persons employed under an employment agreement, nomination, selection, appointment or cooperative employment agreement;
- Natural persons over the age of 18 who perform work under an agency agreement, contract of commission or other agreement for the provision of services to which, according to article 750 of the Act of 23rd April 1964 – Civil Code the provisions on a contract of mandate apply.
A declaration on resignation from making payments into Employee Capital Plans one can submit as of 1st January 2021:
- Persons employed under an employment agreement can submit the declaration to the UW Human Resources Office or by sending an email to ppk.etat@adm.uw.edu.pl;
- Persons employed under a contract of mandate can submit the declaration to the UW Financial Department or send it via email to ppk.zlecenie@adm.uw.edu.pl.
ECP participants who submitted the declaration of resignation can provide their employer with the written application on making payments to the ECP programme at any time.
More information on ECP is available at www.mojeppk.pl.
Seminar CeNT 5.02.2021
01 lutego 2021The Centre of New Technologies invites to a webinar by
Paweł Niewiadomski, PhD,
Centre of New Technologies, University of Warsaw
Title: Hitchhiker’s guide to the primary cilium – how vesicles help soluble proteins reach their target organelle
Date: 5th February 2021 (Friday)
Time: 12:00 pm (Central European Time)
Host: prof. Joanna Trylska
Virtual seminar: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87517725559
Meeting ID: 875 1772 5559
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https://cent.uw.edu.pl/en/laboratories/laboratorium-sygnalizacji-molekularnej-i-komorkowej/
Job offer for a PhD student in the REINFORCE project
29 stycznia 2021Job offer for a PhD student in the REINFORCE project (REconfIgurable Nanostructures For OptoelectRoniC tEchnologies). Project is carried out within the First Team programme of the Foundation for Polish Science. Project leader: Dr. Wiktor Lewandowski. Deadline for applications: 24 February 2021. For more info see >> pdf
Job offer for an undergraduate student in the REINFORCE project
Job offer for an undergraduate student in the REINFORCE project (REconfIgurable Nanostructures For OptoelectRoniC tEchnologies). Project is carried out within the First Team programme of the Foundation for Polish Science. Project leader: Dr. Wiktor Lewandowski. Deadline for applications: 24 February 2021. For more info see >> pdf