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SUMMARY:The Searle Systems Biology and Bioengineering Undergraduate Research Experience at Vanderbilt University - Equipping Students of all Disciplines For Careers in Post-Reductionist Biology and Medicine -- Dr. Kevin T. Seale
DESCRIPTION:Departmental Colloquium. Dr. Kevin T. Seale from Vanderbilt University is our Undergraduate Awards Day Colloquium Speaker.Abstract: From its beginning as a descriptive, taxonomic recording of existing
species to the recognition of the cell as a fundamental unit of
biology to the discovery of the genetic code as the software driver
for all living organisms, research in biology and medicine has
evolved. Along a timeline similar to the progression of the study of
physical sciences from the very large (the solar system and universe)
to the very small (subatomic particles), biologists have reached the
reductionist limit with the complete description of the structure and
function of molecular DNA translation, transcription and replication
machinery. Perhaps not surprisingly, biologists, physicists (and
engineers, chemists, mathematicians) have met at the bottom of the
reductionist path at many universities around the world, and are
working together to build models and experiments of ever-greater
complexity to study the emergent properties of molecular assemblies
such as the biological cell in a growing field known as Systems
Biology. Undergraduate students interested in Systems Biology must
grapple with the requirement that they declare a major – which by
definition will temporarily restrict much of their thinking to
existing academic disciplines. The Searle Systems Biology and
Bioengineering Undergraduate Research Experience (SyBBURE) at
Vanderbilt University is an effort to invigorate the studies of
undergraduates of all majors by providing long-term and unfettered
access to the Vanderbilt Institute for Integrative Biosystems Research
and Education (VIIBRE) and associated laboratories across campus.
Students with active and imaginative minds are encouraged, guided and
amply supplied to investigate the function of individual living cells
under tightly controlled experimental conditions using
state-of-the-art biomicroelectromechanical devices. The SyBBURE
undergraduates, along with collaborating faculty are helping to
develop and build extensive experimental approaches and apparatus for
systems biology research that are more evenly matched to the enormous
complexity of a single, living biological cell. I will give an
overview of SyBBURE experiments and results and discuss bold new
directions chosen by the VIIBRE/SyBBURE cohort to bring the power of
modern technology to bear on difficult biological problems.

LOCATION:Rm 201 Physics Building
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