CHEM Seminar - From Genome to Organism: A Virus-World View

Speaker: Professor John YIN

Institution: Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Hosted by: Professor Haibin SU

Abstract:

The genome of every organism encodes a complex multi-step molecular manufacturing process, and the genomes of viruses are no exception.  In the cytoplasm of a live host cell, the release of a genome from an invading virus directs host material and energy resources toward the synthesis of essential components for virus growth: viral mRNA, viral proteins, and viral genomes. Assembly of these and other components yields progeny virus particles that, upon release by the cell, may then infect other susceptible cells. By performing quantitative experiments and building mathematical models of these processes we begin to link how molecular information processing in limited host-resource environments can impact virus growth and infection spread.  Such models provide a quantitative, mechanistic and integrative viewpoint that can serve as a foundation to control the potentially explosive growth and spread of virus infections.

About the speaker:

John Yin is Professor of Chemical & Biological Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He trained at Columbia University, earning dual undergrad degrees in the liberal arts and chemical engineering. Following a PhD in chemical engineering at UC-Berkeley, he pursued post-doctoral work as an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow with Manfred Eigen at the Max-Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen, Germany. Yin started his academic career at Dartmouth College, where he was awarded an NSF Presidential Early Career Award in Science and Engineering (PECASE). Following a move to UW-Madison in 1998, Yin has advanced experimental measures and computational models that elucidate how viruses grow and how their infections spread. In 2009 Yin was selected to lead the Systems Biology Theme of the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery, a joint public-private venture to promote cross-disciplinary research, education and outreach at the UW-Madison, and in 2015 he was recognized with a Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professorship. Beyond his research interests, Yin is a semi-professional cellist and pianist.