Seminar on Mathematical Methods in Biology

 
This is an ongoing seminar currently held at IMPA, jointly organized with J. Koiller and  J. Palis, Jr.

Previous talks were given in the form of a mini course taught by Prof. Darcy de Almeida (Biofisica-UFRJ) . It took place on March 29th, 31st, April 5th, 7th, 12th, and 14th from 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm.
Click here for the syllabus of the mini course (in portuguese).

 
Our seminar will resume on Friday, September 15th, at 1:30 pm with a lecture by Professor Michael Forger (USP). "Symmetry and Symmetry Breaking: The Mathematics Behind the Genetic Code" Abstract: Symmetry principles can be applied to understand aspects of the evolution of the genetic code. After a short introduction to the biological background, we discuss the algebraic model for the primordial evolution of the standard code due to Hornos and Hornos, based on the symplectic group Sp(6), as well as recent work on an exact Klein symmetry present in the standard code as well as in almost all non-standard codes: this Klein group is a remnant of the Weyl group of Sp(6). Finally, we comment on the (still open) problem of formulating a dynamical model for the evolution of the genetic code, which would be based on the theory of dynamical systems with symmetry

Upcoming activities:

Our seminar will continue on Friday, September 21st, at 1:30 pm with a lecture by Professor Oswaldo Baffa Filho (USP):
"Imagens Biomedicas" (in portuguese) Resumo: O uso de imagens sinteticas de campos magneticos obtidos de substancias magneticas presentes nos sistemas biologicos, assim como aqueles produzidos por correntes de despolarizacao em diferentes orgaos tem se mostrado de grande importancia para estudos basicos e clinicos em diferentes areas. Uma revisao da instrumentacao e processos de medidas proporcionando essas imagens sera apresentada.