Hosna Jabbari - Unravelling RNA function through structure prediction

Talk Title:
Unravelling RNA function through structure prediction

Date/Time:
Thursday, Feb 16th, 2023 6:00pm

Affiliation:
Assistant Professor, Computer Science, University of Victoria

Bio:
Dr. Hosna Jabbari is currently an assistant professor at the Department of Computer Science at the University of Victoria. Prior to joining the University of Victoria, Dr. Jabbari held an assistant professorship at the University of Vermont, USA. She completed her PhD from the University of British Columbia. Her main research goal is to help diagnose and cure human diseases by developing novel diagnostics and therapeutics through research using techniques from bioinformatics, data science and computational genomics. Dr. Jabbari is the founding director of the Computational Biology Research & Analytics (COBRA) lab, and a faculty fellow at the Institute of Aging and Lifelong Health.

Abstract:
Until recently, RNA molecules were considered merely the carrier of information from DNA to proteins. This view, however, has changed as numerous functional roles of RNA molecules have now been discovered. Determining RNA function is complex and, in some cases, still infeasible experimentally. As RNA’s function is mainly determined by its shape, computational methods determining RNA structure provide unique opportunities to help in determining RNA function. During my academic career I have extensively studied RNA structure in order to aid with function determination. In this talk, I showcase some of the algorithms we developed via their application in determining some functional sites of SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic. I further discuss their potential in discovering novel treatments and vaccines for current and future contagions, highlighting some challenges and future opportunities.


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Introductory Speaker:
Caralyn Reisle (PhD Candidate, Dr. Steven Jones Lab, University of British Columbia)

Talk Title:
Fact Checking Cancer Knowledge Bases using Natural Language Processing


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VanBUG (Vancouver Bioinformatics Users Group) is an association of researchers, other professionals and students in the B.C. Lower Mainland who have an interest in the field of bioinformatics.

VanBUG meets on the third Thursday of every month from September through April. Research presentations by bioinformatics leaders, students and industry representatives are followed by networking over pizza and refreshments.

Meetings are held in the St. Paul's Hospital Site: Cullen Room (SPH1477) at 6:00 pm and are free and open to all.