Gulbenkian Doctoral Programme in Biomedicine (PGDB)

A unifying conceptual model for the physiological function of PrPC and PrP-dependent toxicity

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IGC (Population and Conservation Genetics Group) and Institut National des Sciences Appliquées de Toulouse

The development of a spatial simulation tool for population genetics: early stages

Genetic data are increasingly used to study the evolution of natural populations. This has led to the development of inferential methods to reconstruct the demographic history of these populations. Most of the statistical methods used ignore structure and space and assume that populations can be regarded as panmictic. However, there is an increasing recognition that it is important to explicitly model space, either by using stable “stepping-stone” models (i.e. assuming that populations are at equilibrium) or by allowing for spatial expansions. Unfortunately there are very few tools that allow population geneticists to study the properties of genetic data under spatial expansions and admixture events. Here we present the early stages of a program that should allow doing that. The aim of this talk will be to present the program which is still at an early stage of development, and discuss some of the choices made.

IGC (Population and Conservation Genetics Group) and Institut National des Sciences Appliquées de Toulouse

The development of a spatial simulation tool for population genetics: early stages

Genetic data are increasingly used to study the evolution of natural populations. This has led to the development of inferential methods to reconstruct the demographic history of these populations. Most of the statistical methods used ignore structure and space and assume that populations can be regarded as panmictic. However, there is an increasing recognition that it is important to explicitly model space, either by using stable “stepping-stone” models (i.e. assuming that populations are at equilibrium) or by allowing for spatial expansions. Unfortunately there are very few tools that allow population geneticists to study the properties of genetic data under spatial expansions and admixture events. Here we present the early stages of a program that should allow doing that. The aim of this talk will be to present the program which is still at an early stage of development, and discuss some of the choices made.

Theoretical Evolutionary Genetics, CMAF, Lisbon University, Portugal

Genetic linkage and mutation rate instability

We propose a new hypothesis that clonal evolution is fundamentally flawed due to mutation rate instability: under strong genetic linkage, adaptation by natural selection makes this instability strongly asymmetric, thereby driving mutation rates to intolerable levels and causing the population to abruptly go extinct Ð a process that has been dubbed the "mutation-rate catastrophe".

I will describe the population-biological process, briefly outline the theory, present preliminary experimental data, and discuss potential applications, including possible implications for a new mode of action of the immune system.