BIFI TALK: David Fernández-Antorán. Gurdon Institute, Cambrigde and ARAID-IIS Aragón Title: Epithelioids: Long-term and self-maintained primary 3D cultures to study tissue behaviour in vitro Abstract This talk will introduce "Epithelioids," a novel 3D primary epithelial culture system that enables the long-term, self-sustaining growth of tissues derived from both normal and tumour samples. Epithelioids maintain the proliferation, differentiation, and structural integrity of adult epithelial tissues, faithfully replicating the complex interactions between different cell types, including the immune system. With their high genomic…

BIFI TALK: Ariadna Pié Porta, Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, Technical University of Denmark Title:Oxidases and their Michaels Constant for Oxygen: Relevance and Measurement Abstract Medicine has benefited from the great features of enzymes for many years. During the past decades, the interest in the application of enzymes as (bio)catalysts to produce a wide range of valuable compounds has increased. In particular, oxidative reactions are crucial in many synthetic processes for the production of a wide range of chemicals.…

BIFI TALK: Francisco Ciruela, Pharmacology Unit, Department of Pathology and Experimental Therapeutics, School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Institute of Neurosciences, University of Barcelona, 08907 L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, Spain. Neuropharmacology and Pain Group, Neuroscience Program, Institut d’Investigació Biomèdica de Bellvitge, IDIBELL, 08907 L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, Spain. Title: Adenosine receptor heteromers: biasing antipsychotics Abstract The striatal dopamine D2 receptor (D2R) is generally accepted to be involved in positive symptoms of schizophrenia and is a main target for clinically used antipsychotic drugs (APDs). In fact, D2R…

Title:Challenges and advances in the training of Energy-Based Models: theoretical insights on non-equilibrium sampling and overfitting Abstract In the context of unsupervised learning and generative models in artificial intelligence, energy-based models (EBMs) provide a simple way to describe arbitrary complex datasets, by encoding their empirical distribution into a Boltzmann probability law with a given energy function. EBMs can be used to generate new data statistically equivalent to the training set, and to extract microscopic information, i.e. effective interactions among data…

BIFI-TALK: James Krieger. CNB-CSIC, Madrid Title: A Perspective on CryoEM, Heterogeneity and Dynamics Abstract Proteins are dynamic objects that change their shape (conformation) and move around and interact with other molecules (composition) to carry out functions. Cryogenic electron microscopy (CryoEM) is a valuable technique for capturing the resulting heterogeneity, thanks to many developments in hardware and software. Nevertheless, understanding dynamics and function from CryoEM is still a challenge. The last few years has seen a second revolution in image processing to…

BIFI TALK: Ángel Pérez Lara, Universidad de Granada Title: Molecular mechanism of neurotransmitter release machinery Abstract Transmission of information between neurons relies on the neurotransmitter release from synaptic vesicles into the synaptic cleft upon the influx of Ca2+, a process known as synaptic exocytosis. Synaptic exocytosis is mediated by the SNARE proteins syntaxin 1 (syx-1A), synaptobrevin-2 (syb-2), and SNAP-25, which form the core of the supramolecular fusion machinery. However, SNARE proteins require additional regulatory proteins to control the early steps…

BIFI-TALK: Xavier de la Cruz Monserrat. Vall d'Hebron Institute of Research, Barcelona Title: Cracking the Hereditary Disease Code: Revisiting Predictive Properties with a Probabilistic Touch Abstract As genomic sequencing becomes widespread in clinical settings, in silico pathogenicity predictions are increasingly vital for precision medicine. However, despite advances in machine learning-based classifiers, existing approaches are reaching a performance plateau while still facing interpretation challenges. In response, a paradigm shift has emerged in recent years, moving from binary classification toward modeling the quantitative…