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SUMMARY:EPFL BioE Talks SERIES  "Reprogramming Transcription Factors With 
 a Universal Zinc Finger Model for Safe and Limitless Epigenetic Editing"
DTSTART:20240325T121500
DTEND:20240325T131500
DTSTAMP:20260408T025818Z
UID:06bfd77c9c949797882d8ec25a09a4d58de619dec13e88808fbaf0a7
CATEGORIES:Conferences - Seminars
DESCRIPTION:Prof. Marcus B. Noyes\, Institute for Systems Genetics\, Dept.
  of Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology\, New York University School o
 f Medicine\, New York City\, NY (USA)\nWEEKLY EPFL BIOE TALKS SERIES (sand
 wiches provided)\n\nAbstract:\nGenome and epi-editing tools have revolutio
 nized research today and provide powerful therapeutic potential due to the
 ir high efficacy and ease of use. The ease of use is the result of the sim
 ple code used by CRISPR-cas systems that only require the design of a piec
 e of RNA that is complementary to the desired DNA target. As a result\, to
 ols ranging from artificial activators and repressors to designer nuclease
 s\, recombinases\, base editors\, and more have been developed by harnessi
 ng the programmability of the Cas9 RNA-DNA hybrid to direct these function
 s to specific sequences in the genome. Nature\, on the other hand\, has pr
 imarily used protein-DNA interactions to direct functions to specific posi
 tions in a genome. In fact\, more than 75% of the human transcription fact
 ors (TFs) use one of just six different kinds of DNA-binding domains (DBDs
 ). For example\, the Cys2His2 zinc finger domain (ZF) is by far the most c
 ommon DBD used by eukaryotes\, representing approximately 50% of the human
  TFs.\n\nInterestingly\, the ZF domain was one of the first domains used f
 or these synthetic\, programmable purposes but failed to catch on due to t
 he laborious engineering process required to generate novel proteins. Howe
 ver\, a simple model of ZF design would unlock the advantages of this smal
 ler domain that would function more similar to natural TFs. For this reaso
 n\, we screened more than 50 billion protein-DNA interactions to understan
 d how ZFs within arrays engage the DNA. We used this data to train the fir
 st AI-based model for ZF design that enables the simple generation of ZF a
 rrays able to bind any target of interest. We have shown that these ZFs ca
 n be used to reprogram natural TFs\, or TFs with synthetic effector domain
 s\, and direct their unique regulatory potential to desired genomic loci. 
 Next\, in unpublished work\, we used the screen of hundreds of ZF proteins
  for their ability to bind millions of DNA sequences to retrain the model 
 and improve its prediction of specificity. Ultimately\, we are using a com
 bination of synthetic biology\, high throughput screens\, and machine lear
 ning to provide a continuous model of ZFs that enables the design of domai
 ns with any desired specificity or kinetic parameter that would impact ZF 
 function across the genome.\n\nBio:\n\n	2015-            Profess
 or at the NYU School of Medicine\, focused on protein engineering for syst
 ems and synthetic biology applications\n	2009-2015  Started first indepen
 dent lab as a Lewis-Sigler Fellow\, Princeton University\, NJ\, USA\n	2003
 -2009  PhD student in Biochemistry at the University of Massachusetts Sch
 ool of Medicine\, Worcester\, MA\, USA\n	1998-2002   Studied Biology and
  Psychology at Hamline University\,  St. Paul\, MN\, USA\n	1990-1998   
 Played in bad punk rock bands in Minneapolis\, MN\, USA\n\n\n\n\nZoom link
  (with one-time registration for the whole series) for attending remotely:
  https://go.epfl.ch/EPFLBioETalks\n\n\nInstructions for 1st-year Ph.D. stu
 dents who are under EDBB’s mandatory seminar attendance rule:\nIN CASE y
 ou cannot attend in-person in the room\, please make sure to\n\n\n	send D.
  Reinhard a note well ahead of time (ideally before seminar day)\, informi
 ng that you plan to attend the talk online\, and\, during seminar:\n	be si
 gned in on Zoom with a recognizable user name (not any alias making it dif
 ficult or impossible to identify you).\n\nStudents attending the seminar i
 n-person should collect a confirmation signature after the talk - please p
 rint your own signature sheet beforehand (71 kB pdf available for download
  here). IMPORTANTLY: hang on to this sheet as no signature record is being
  kept by anyone else!
LOCATION:SV 1717 https://plan.epfl.ch/?room==SV%201717 https://go.epfl.ch/
 EPFLBioETalks
STATUS:CONFIRMED
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