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<h5 style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34);" class=""><span style="font-weight: normal; font-family: Avenir-Book; font-size: large;" class="">Dear QSB Faculty,</span></h5>
<div class=""><font face="Avenir-Book" style="font-weight: normal;" size="4" class="">I would like to bring to your attention a faculty job candidate that may be of interest to you. She is a highly experienced biochemist who studies inflammation and cell death.
It would be great if we could make a strong showing at her job talk (please read more details below).</font></div>
<div class=""><font face="Avenir-Book" style="font-weight: normal;" size="4" class=""><br class="">
</font></div>
<div class=""><font face="Avenir-Book" style="font-weight: normal;" size="4" class="">Andy</font></div>
<div class=""><font face="Avenir-Book" style="font-weight: normal;" size="4" class="">- - - -</font></div>
<h5 style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34);" class=""><font face="Avenir-Book" size="4" style="font-weight: normal;" class="">Event Start: 03/15/2017, 02:30 PM</font></h5>
<h5 style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34);" class=""><font face="Avenir-Book" style="font-weight: normal;" size="4" class="">Event End: <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_2116436981" tabindex="0" style="border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">03/15/2017,
04:00 PM</span></span></font></h5>
<h5 style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34);" class=""><font face="Avenir-Book" style="font-weight: normal;" size="4" class="">Event Location: Classroom & Office Building-2, COB-2 392</font></h5>
<div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34);" class="">
<div class=""><font face="Avenir-Book" class="">Title:</font></div>
<div class=""><font face="Avenir-Book" class="">SAFI Seminar Series: Understanding disease: Molecular mechanisms of Inflammation and </font><span style="font-family: Avenir-Book;" class="">Cellular Death</span></div>
<div class=""><font face="Avenir-Book" class=""> </font></div>
<div class=""><font face="Avenir-Book" class="">Location:</font></div>
<div class=""><font face="Avenir-Book" class="">Classroom & Office Building-2, COB-2 392</font></div>
<div class=""><font face="Avenir-Book" class=""> </font></div>
<div class=""><font face="Avenir-Book" class="">Date:</font></div>
<div class=""><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_2116436982" tabindex="0" style="border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;"><font face="Avenir-Book" class="">Wednesday,
March 15, 2017</font></span></span></div>
<div class=""><font face="Avenir-Book" class=""> </font></div>
<div class=""><font face="Avenir-Book" class="">Start Time:</font></div>
<div class=""><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_2116436983" tabindex="0" style="border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(100, 100, 100); position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0; cursor: pointer;"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;"><font face="Avenir-Book" class="">2:30
p.m.</font></span></span></div>
<div class=""><font face="Avenir-Book" class=""> </font></div>
<div class=""><font face="Avenir-Book" class="">End Time:</font></div>
<div class=""><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_2116436984" tabindex="0" style="border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;"><font face="Avenir-Book" class="">4:00
p.m.</font></span></span></div>
<div class=""><font face="Avenir-Book" class=""> </font></div>
<div class=""><font face="Avenir-Book" class="">Details:</font></div>
<div class=""><font face="Avenir-Book" class="">Dr. <span class="il">Eva</span> de <span class="il">Alba</span> will be discussing how chronic inflammation is at the core of many diseases of </font><span style="font-family: Avenir-Book;" class="">increasing
prevalence, ranging from autoimmune disorders to life-threatening diseases such as </span><span style="font-family: Avenir-Book;" class="">diabetes, cancer and atherosclerosis. The factors responsible for chronic inflammation extend </span><font face="Avenir-Book" class="">from
early life and psychosocial stressors, obesity and lifestyle, to environmental and biological </font><span style="font-family: Avenir-Book;" class="">cues such as cellular imbalance and molecular anomalies. Thus, the design of strategies to </span><span style="font-family: Avenir-Book;" class="">prevent
and treat this ample array of inflammation-related disorders requires an interdisciplinary </span><span style="font-family: Avenir-Book;" class="">effort that combines epidemiologic, psychosocial and developmental studies, with biochemical, </span><span style="font-family: Avenir-Book;" class="">biophysical,
molecular and cellular biology approaches. An essential step towards these efforts </span><span style="font-family: Avenir-Book;" class="">involves the identification and characterization of the molecular and cellular mechanisms in </span><span style="font-family: Avenir-Book;" class="">control
of the onset and resolution of inflammatory processes.</span></div>
<div class=""><font face="Avenir-Book" class=""> </font></div>
<div class=""><font face="Avenir-Book" class="">At the cellular level, inflammation is triggered by the formation of a protein oligomeric platform </font><span style="font-family: Avenir-Book;" class="">known as the inflammasome, followed by programmed death
of immune cells. De</span><span style="font-family: Avenir-Book;" class=""> </span><span class="il" style="font-family: Avenir-Book;">Alba</span><span style="font-family: Avenir-Book;" class=""> </span><span style="font-family: Avenir-Book;" class="">will </span><span style="font-family: Avenir-Book;" class="">share
recent findings pertaining the modus operandi of key proteins involved in the molecular </span><span style="font-family: Avenir-Book;" class="">mechanisms that lead to inflammasome formation and programmed cell death, that she has </span><span style="font-family: Avenir-Book;" class="">unveiled
using advanced biophysical techniques with a major focus on high-resolution Nuclear </span><span style="font-family: Avenir-Book;" class="">Magnetic Resonance. In particular Dr. de</span><span style="font-family: Avenir-Book;" class=""> </span><span class="il" style="font-family: Avenir-Book;">Alba</span><span style="font-family: Avenir-Book;" class=""> </span><span style="font-family: Avenir-Book;" class="">will
discuss the structure, dynamics and </span><span style="font-family: Avenir-Book;" class="">interaction capabilities of the inflammasome adapter ASC and one of its common targets, the </span><span style="font-family: Avenir-Book;" class="">pathogen-recognition
receptor NLRP3, together with results explaining the conformational and </span><span style="font-family: Avenir-Book;" class="">binding behavior of intrinsically disordered members of the Bcl-2 family controlling cell death. </span><span style="font-family: Avenir-Book;" class="">Data
will be presented in relation to structural models accounting for protein interactions in </span><span style="font-family: Avenir-Book;" class="">inflammasome formation and cell death, and discussed in terms of how the key interacting </span><span style="font-family: Avenir-Book;" class="">protein
interfaces can be used as potential targets of therapeutic strategies for inflammasome </span><span style="font-family: Avenir-Book;" class="">inhibition.</span></div>
<div class=""><font face="Avenir-Book" class=""> </font></div>
<div class=""><font face="Avenir-Book" class="">Dr. <span class="il">Eva</span> de <span class="il">Alba</span> is a principal investigator of the National Center for Biotechnology of Spain’s </font><span style="font-family: Avenir-Book;" class="">National
Research Council (CNB-CSIC). De</span><span style="font-family: Avenir-Book;" class=""> </span><span class="il" style="font-family: Avenir-Book;">Alba</span><span style="font-family: Avenir-Book;" class=""> </span><span style="font-family: Avenir-Book;" class="">earned
her Ph.D. in Chemistry from the </span><span style="font-family: Avenir-Book;" class="">Complutense University of Madrid (Spain), carried out postdoctoral training at the National </span><span style="font-family: Avenir-Book;" class="">Institutes of Health
(NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland, and remained at NIH as staff scientist for </span><span style="font-family: Avenir-Book;" class="">another 6 years before joining the faculty at CNB-CSIC. De</span><span style="font-family: Avenir-Book;" class=""> </span><span class="il" style="font-family: Avenir-Book;">Alba</span><span style="font-family: Avenir-Book;" class="">’s
general research interests </span><span style="font-family: Avenir-Book;" class="">revolve around understanding the molecular mechanisms that are the fulcrum of vital cellular </span><span style="font-family: Avenir-Book;" class="">processes whose dysfunction
results in disease. In particular, Dr. de</span><span style="font-family: Avenir-Book;" class=""> </span><span class="il" style="font-family: Avenir-Book;">Alba</span><span style="font-family: Avenir-Book;" class=""> </span><span style="font-family: Avenir-Book;" class="">studies
the molecular </span><span style="font-family: Avenir-Book;" class="">processes that regulate inflammation and programmed cell death from a biochemical, biophysical </span><span style="font-family: Avenir-Book;" class="">and bioengineering perspective, with
the goal of providing the foundations to understand the role </span><span style="font-family: Avenir-Book;" class="">of inflammation in neurological and cardiovascular diseases, autoimmune disorders and cancer, </span><span style="font-family: Avenir-Book;" class="">and
to help in the development of novel therapeutic strategies for treatment. De</span><span style="font-family: Avenir-Book;" class=""> </span><span class="il" style="font-family: Avenir-Book;">Alba</span><span style="font-family: Avenir-Book;" class="">’s work
has </span><span style="font-family: Avenir-Book;" class="">been published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, Proceedings of the National </span><span style="font-family: Avenir-Book;" class="">Academy of Sciences, the Journal of Biological Chemistry,
among others.</span></div>
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