Der Fachbereich Informatik und die Österreichische Computer Gesellschaft laden zu folgendem Vortrag ein: ======================================================================== Professor Grzegorz ROZENBERG Rijksuniv. Leiden, NL Datum: Mo, 24.11.2003 Uhrzeit: 17.00 Uhr pünktlich Ort: Hörsaal EI 9 (Hlawka-Hs), TU Wien, Gußhausstr. 27-29, Erdgeschoss ======================================================================== TITEL: Gene Assembly in Ciliates - a Splendid Example of Natural Computing ======================================================================== ABSTRACT: Natural Computing is a general term referring to computing taking place in Nature and computing inspired by Nature. When complex phenomena going on in Nature are viewed as computational processes, our understanding of these phenomena and of the essence of computation is enhanced. In this way one gains valuable insights into both natural sciences and computer science. DNA computing (one of the areas of Natural Computing) investigates the use of DNA for the purpose of computing, and DNA computing in vivo investigates the computational properties of DNA molecules in their natural habitat: the living cell. Ciliates, a very ancient group of single cell organisms, have evolved extraordinary ways of organizing, manipulating and replicating DNA. The way that ciliates transform the genes from their micronuclear (storage) form into their macronuclear (expression) form is very interesting from the computational point of view. Current research in gene assembly in ciliates is an example of a flourishing interdisciplinary research involving computer scientists and molecular biologists. On the one hand it belongs to the novel and very active area of DNA computing where biologists co-operate with computer scientists in designing "computers of the future" based on biomolecules rather than on silicon. On the other hand, it belongs to bioinformatics where computer scientists co-operate with biologists in getting more understanding of complex biological processes. In our lecture we will discuss computational aspects of gene assembly in ciliates - we will explain the process of gene assembly, and then present a number of novel problems and results in (theory of) computation as well as their interplay with (their impact on) the original biological problem setting. The lecture is of a tutorial style, and in particular no background in molecular biology is required. ======================================================================== Kurzbiographie zu Professor Grzegorz ROZENBERG ======================================================================== Prof. Rozenberg received his Master and Engineer degree in computer science in 1965 from the Technical University of Warsaw, Poland. In 1968 he obtained his Ph.D. in mathematics at the Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw. Since then he has held full time positions at the Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland (assistant professor), Utrecht University, The Netherlands (assistant professor), State University of New York at Buffalo, U.S.A. (associate professor), and University of Antwerp, Belgium (professor). Since 1979 he has been a professor at the Department of Computer Science of Leiden University and an adjoint professor at the Department of Computer Science of University of Colorado at Boulder, U.S.A. He is the head of the Theoretical Computer Science group at Leiden Institute of Advanced Computer Science (LIACS), and the scientific director of Leiden Center for Natural Computing (LCNC). G. Rozenberg has published about 350 papers, 5 books, and is a (co-)editor of about 60 books. Weitere Informationen über den Vortragenden finden Sie auf http://www.liacs.nl/~rozenber/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Kontaktperson an der TU Wien: Prof. Dr. Rudolf Freund, Tel. 58801-18542 Die Finanzierung dieser Veranstaltung erfolgt durch das Institut für Computersprachen und die TU Wien ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Der Fachbereich Informatik erhält Sponsorgelder u.a. von - Siemens AG Österreich - Austrian Research Centers Seibersdorf - Sun Microsystems