BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//wp-events-plugin.com//7.2.2.1//EN TZID:Asia/Jerusalem X-WR-TIMEZONE:Asia/Jerusalem BEGIN:VEVENT UID:1315@biology.technion.ac.il DTSTART;TZID=Asia/Jerusalem:20251124T130000 DTEND;TZID=Asia/Jerusalem:20251124T140000 DTSTAMP:20251119T081750Z URL:https://biology.technion.ac.il/en/seminars/faculty-seminar-prof-schrag i-shwartz/ SUMMARY:Faculty Seminar-Prof. Schragi Shwartz [No Categories] DESCRIPTION:Location: Faculty Of Biology Auditorium \n Affiliation: Weizma nn Institute of Science\n Host:Dr\, Maya Maor-Nof \n Dear Biology Students \, Postdocs\, and Faculty\,\n\n \;\n\nNext week for our Faculty Semina r Series at 1:00 p.m. on Monday\, November 24th\, we will have a talk by D r. Schragi Schwartz of the Weizmann Institute of Science. Dr. Schwartz w ill present a talk titled “Methyl Marks and Molecular Heat Shields: How RNA Modifications Shape Function and Adaptation” .\n\n \;\n\nTalk Ab stract: Methyl Marks and Molecular Heat Shields: How RNA Modifications Sha pe Function and Adaptation\n\n \;\n\n \;\n\nSimilar to DNA and pro teins\, RNA undergoes extensive post-synthetic modification. To\n\ndate\, more than 170 distinct modifications have been documented\, installed by a \n\ndiverse set of typically highly conserved enzymes\, many of which play essential roles in\n\nRNA structure and function and are implicated in hu man disease.\n\nIn the first part of my talk\, I will focus on N6-methylad enosine (m6A)\, the most\n\nprevalent internal modification on mRNA. Altho ugh m6A is found at hundreds of\n\nthousands of sites transcriptome-wide\, the rules governing its deposition remained\n\nunclear. I will describe o ur advances in deciphering this “m6A code\,” which provided key\n\nins ights into the determinants of specificity and the functional consequences of this\n\nmodification.\n\nIn the second part\, I will turn to ribosomal RNA (rRNA) modifications\, which we\n\ndissected using a newly developed genomic platform that enables systematic profiling\n\nof 16 distinct modif ications across dozens of samples in parallel. Applying this approach\n\nt o species spanning the tree of life—particularly unicellular extremophil es that thrive\n\nunder harsh physical\, chemical\, or biological conditio ns—we discovered striking\n\nevolutionary patterns. While dynamic rRNA m odifications are rare in mesophiles\, in\n\nextreme hyperthermophiles near ly half of all modifications proved to be dynamic.\n\nI will highlight one example: a conserved module of tandem m5C–ac4C modifications\,\n\nco-in duced at elevated temperatures by enzymes that are intrinsically temperatu re-\n\nresponsive and essential for growth under thermal stress. By integr ating genomic\,\n\nbiophysical\, and structural analyses\, we revealed a s ynergistic thermostabilizing\n\nfunction of this modification pair.\n\nTog ether\, these findings shed light on the critical contribution of rRNA mod ifications to\n\nribosome stability\, enabling ribosomes to preserve their structural integrity even at near-\n\nboiling temperatures that would oth erwise cause denaturation.\n\n \;\n\nSome details about his research a nd publications can be found at:\n\nhttps://www.weizmann.ac.il/molgen/schw artz/\n\n \;\n\n \;\n\nLooking forward to seeing you!\nMaya LOCATION:Faculty Of Biology Auditorium END:VEVENT BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:Asia/Jerusalem X-LIC-LOCATION:Asia/Jerusalem BEGIN:STANDARD DTSTART:20251026T010000 TZOFFSETFROM:+0300 TZOFFSETTO:+0200 TZNAME:IST END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE END:VCALENDAR