MEMP PhD Thesis Defense (3:30pm): Rebecca Carlson

Functional Genomic and Image-Based Screening Approaches for Probing Host-Pathogen Interactions

Host-pathogen interactions represent a complex interplay between hosts and pathogens that can evolve over millions of years. Interactions between bacteria or viruses and human cells, and the resulting evolved antipathogenic signaling pathways, are processes responsible for pathologies ranging from infectious disease to autoimmune conditions and cancer. In addition, engineered designs inspired by pathogen interactions with hosts are increasingly being used to both treat and diagnose many pathologies that need not originate from infection with a pathogen. Therefore, it is critical to build and deploy scalable tools to better understand host-pathogen dynamics.

In this thesis, I describe approaches to leverage functional genomics and image-based screening to perturb and profile host-pathogen interactions, including responses to two RNA viruses, Sendai virus and Ebola virus. These two studies highlight the utility of high-content image-based screening for revealing new genetic regulators of predefined phenotypes of interest. In addition, these screens generate single-cell image-based profiles that can be used to infer new genetic functions and phenotypic states directly from screening data without a priori specification. 

Thesis Supervisors:
Paul C. Blainey, PhD
Associate Professor of Biological Engineering, MIT

Nir Hacohen, PhD
Professor of Medicine, HMS

Thesis Committee Chair:
Jonathan Weisman, PhD
Landon T. Clay Professor, Whitehead Institute, Professor of Biology, Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, MIT

Thesis Readers:
Jonathan Kagan, PhD
Marian R. Neutra Professor of Pediatrics, HMS

Peter Sorger, PhD
Otto Krayer Professor of Systems Pharmacology, HMS

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Zoom invitation – 

Rebecca Carlson is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting. 

Topic: Rebecca Carlson Thesis Defense
Time: Friday, May 12, 2023 03:30 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Your participation is important to us: please notify hst [at] mit.edu (hst[at]mit[dot]edu), at least 3 business days in advance, if you require accommodations in order to access this event.

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