Solar filaments, or called prominences when appearing above the solar limb, are a spectacular phenomenon in the solar atmosphere, which provides a key link between solar flares and coronal mass ejections. Their formation is strongly related to chromospheric heating, and the heavy materials are supported either by magnetic flux ropes or sheared arcades, the determination of which relied on sporadic measurements. In this talk, I will review our work on solar filaments formation and how to determine the magnetic configuration of a filament simply from EUV images only.
Microtubules are dynamic cytoskeletal filaments that control different aspects of cell architecture. Microtubules are intrinsically asymmetric polymers, with fast-growing plus ends, which in cells serve as major sites of microtubule assembly and disassembly, and slow-growing minus ends, which are often stabilized and attached to different cellular structures. In my lab, we use in vitro assays combined with single molecule imaging to dissect how the proteins that bind to microtubule plus- and minus ends control microtubule nucleation and growth and thus regulate formation of dynamic microtubule networks or the stable cores of centrosomes and cilia. In parallel, we employ live cell imaging to study how microtubules contribute to cell polarity, migration, division and differentiation. In my seminar, I will discuss the interplay between microtubule nucleation by gamma-tubulin ring complex, minus end stabilization by CAMSAP family proteins and microtubule severing by katanin. I will also describe the characterization of an optogenetic tool for local microtubule disassembly and its application to studying cell architecture.
Over nearly all scientific organisations, across every country and across time one finds that the progression of women in research/academia is significantly hindered when compared to men. Such a universal truth represents an enormous loss of talent, including in our very own bioinorganic community. Recent years have seen some progress in understanding the principal factors behind this phenomenon and there has been some progress in new schemes which are designed to address the lack of women in senior scientific positions. These schemes have also met with some resistance which, in itself, has been revealing of the reasons why there is such a difference in the progression rates of men and women in science. This presentation discusses some of those resistances: why they arise; what they reveal about gender (in)equality in our universities, laboratories, groups; and — most importantly — what can be done about them.
