Events

Nancy Papalopulu did her PhD at the National Institute for Medical Research, UK and a post-doc at the Salk Institute for Biomedical Research, US. After 10 years as a Group Leader at the Gurdon Institute, Cambridge, UK, she moved to the University of Manchester in 2006 to take up a Professorship in Developmental Neuroscience. She is a Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow, an elected member of EMBO (2012), a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (2013) and has served in the Senate and Board of Governors of the University of Manchester.

Seminar abstract:
In recent years, our understanding of how cells make cell state transitions has been transformed by the application of single cell molecular technologies. In neural progenitors, single cell imaging with unstable reporters has revealed asynchronous pulsatile fluctuations in regulatory gene expression, which is masked by static measurements of population averages. Using single cell quantitative approaches, live imaging, multiple experimental model systems and mathematical modeling I will show how a relatively simple transcription factor/miR regulatory network is capable of transitioning from pulsatile gene expression to a stable state autonomously but also in a time-controlled manner. However, the timing can be “tuned” by external influences such as a change in parameters or the initial conditions. These findings provide a novel way of understanding cell state transitions based on the dynamic properties of gene regulatory networks. Finally, I will present some unpublished data on how intrinsic stochasticity may be beneficial for a robust biological outcome, which is in contrast with the widely held view that biological noise is a trait that needs to be counteracted.