TODAY: ISCBacademy Webinar today with Nico Pfeifer on HIV
by Mueller, Mattea
ISCBacademy<https://www.iscb.org/iscbacademy>
Modeling Microbe Evolution Due to Immune System Pressure
by Nico Pfeifer (University of Tübingen)
Today - February 25, 2025, at 3:00 PM CET
Microbes are under constant evolutionary pressure from their environment, with the immune system playing a significant role in shaping their adaptation strategies. Viruses, in particular, must evolve to evade immune responses, enabling them to establish persistent infections. A well-studied example is HIV, where viral adaptation to the host's immune system has been extensively modeled using computational methods.
In this talk, Nico Pfeifer will explore the computational approaches developed to model viral adaptation and their implications for understanding microbe evolution under immune pressure. The session will cover:
* Early computational models of HIV immune adaptation [1]
* Recent advances in Bayesian modeling for predicting viral evolution [2]
* The impact of founder effects on adaptation predictions
* Applications beyond viruses, including resistance prediction for Mycobacterium tuberculosis
These insights not only enhance our understanding of viral evolution but also inform strategies for tackling antimicrobial resistance and improving predictive models for microbial adaptation.
[1] Carlson, J., Du, V., Pfeifer, N. et al. Impact of pre-adapted HIV transmission. Nat Med 22, 606–613 (2016).
[2] Hake, A., Germann, A., de Beer, C. et al. Insights to HIV-1 coreceptor usage by estimating HLA adaptation with Bayesian generalized linear mixed models, PLOS Computational Biology, 19(12): e1010355 (2023).
Join the Webinar by logging in to ISCB Nucleus<https://iscb.junolive.co/>
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Dr. Mattea Müller
Project Manager
Computational Biology for Infection Research
Head of Department: Prof. Alice McHardy
Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research GmbH
Inhoffenstrasse 7
38124 Braunschweig
Germany
________________________________
Helmholtz-Zentrum für Infektionsforschung GmbH | Inhoffenstraße 7 | 38124 Braunschweig | www.helmholtz-hzi.de
Vorsitzende des Aufsichtsrates: Frau MinDir'in Prof. Dr. Veronika von Messling, Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung
Stellvertreter: MinDirig Rüdiger Eichel, Niedersächsisches Ministerium für Wissenschaft und Kultur
Wissenschaftlicher Geschäftsführer: Prof. Dr. Josef Penninger - Administrativer Geschäftsführer: Christian Scherf
Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung (GmbH)
Sitz der Gesellschaft: Braunschweig
Handelsregister: Amtsgericht Braunschweig, HRB 477
Unsere Hinweise zum Datenschutz finden Sie hier: https://www.helmholtz-hzi.de/de/service/datenschutz/
2 weeks
NFDI4Microbiota Coffee Talk on February 24 on Microbial Protein Prediction
by Mueller, Mattea
Dear Ambassadors, Members, Participants, and Community,
We are excited to invite you to our next NFDI4Microbiota Coffee Talk on February 24 at 2:30 PM CET!
This session will host Dr. Thomas Hitch (RWTH Aachen University), who will present:
Lineage-specific microbial protein prediction enables large-scale exploration of protein ecology within the human gut
Microbes use a range of genetic codes and gene structures, yet these are ignored during metagenomic analysis. This causes spurious protein predictions, preventing functional assignment and limiting our understanding of ecosystems. To resolve this, we developed a lineage-specific gene prediction approach that uses the correct genetic code based on taxonomic assignment, removes partial predictions, and optimizes the prediction of small proteins.
Applied to 9,634 metagenomes and 3,594 genomes from the human gut, this approach increased the captured expressed microbial proteins by 78.9%, including previously hidden functional groups. Optimized small protein prediction captured 3,772,658 small protein clusters, many with antimicrobial activity. Integration of these protein sequences and sample metadata into a tool, InvestiGUT, enables the association of protein prevalence with host parameters. Accurate prediction of proteins is critical for understanding microbiome functionality, and this work enhances our mechanistic understanding of microbe-host interactions.
When?
📅 Date: Monday, February 24
🕝 Time: 2:30 PM CET
Where?
💻 Online on Zoom
🔗 Join the Meeting https://helmholtz-hzi-de.zoom-x.de/j/68764089023?pwd=cvlqk3FLgKyIyK3xkUy2...
We look forward to seeing you online for an engaging discussion! Please feel free to share this invitation with colleagues who may be interested.
Best regards,
Mattea Müller
NFDI4Microbiota Team
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Helmholtz-Zentrum für Infektionsforschung GmbH | Inhoffenstraße 7 | 38124 Braunschweig | www.helmholtz-hzi.de
Vorsitzende des Aufsichtsrates: Frau MinDir'in Prof. Dr. Veronika von Messling, Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung
Stellvertreter: MinDirig Rüdiger Eichel, Niedersächsisches Ministerium für Wissenschaft und Kultur
Wissenschaftlicher Geschäftsführer: Prof. Dr. Josef Penninger - Administrativer Geschäftsführer: Christian Scherf
Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung (GmbH)
Sitz der Gesellschaft: Braunschweig
Handelsregister: Amtsgericht Braunschweig, HRB 477
Unsere Hinweise zum Datenschutz finden Sie hier: https://www.helmholtz-hzi.de/de/service/datenschutz/
3 weeks, 6 days