ISSSB-International Summer School on Systems Biology
The Systems Biology approach to discover marine life:
from a big eye to a microscopic picture
10-14 October 2022
Biological systems are complex networks of biological entities such as organs, tissues, cells, organelles, macromolecular complexes, regulatory pathways and at macro scale individuals.Â
Oceans represent a perfect example of a biological system made of a huge numeber of interconnected biodiverse systems both as species and as niches. Understanding how their connections results in its health and equilibrium require a wide approach looking at it from all the possible angles.
Systems biology aims to provide a comprehensive view of the biological systems using an interdisciplinary integrated approaches from different scientific areas and technological, experimental and informatic skills.
Based on this holistic view, the aim of the school is to provide participants basic and advanced knowledge on Biodiversity, Ecological interactions, Evolutionary Genomics and Omic disciplines, to be used as an integrated approach applied to oceans for EcoEvoDevo studies and Biotech Applications.
Programme

Monday 10/10/2022
08:30-09:00 Registrations;
09:00-09:20 Welcome by the organizers
Session: Biodiversity and Ecological interactions
Chair: Dr. Ylenia Carotenuto
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09:20-10:10 Prof. Lucie Bittner:
Systems Biology approach to study ocean systems, microbial ecology and diversity;
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10:10-11:00 Prof. Ferdinando Boero: Biodiversity, evolution and functioning of ocean systems.
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11:00-11:20 Coffee break
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11:20-12:10 Prof. Maurizio Ribera D'Alcalà: Biotic-abiotic interactions and the modelling approach to study oceans as a whole;
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12:10-13:00 Dr. Domenico D'Alelio:
Plasticity of trophic structure, niches and roles in plankton communities under environmental shifts. Insights from network approaches.
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13:00-13:30 Brainstorming
Chairs: 2 Students
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13:30 LUNCH
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Practical Session
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15:00-17:00 Dr. Y. Carotenuto, Dr. A. Sardo, and Dr. G. Romano:
Systems biology applied to plant and animal organisms.
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17:00 Visit at DaDoM

Tuesday 11/10/2022
Session: Evolutionary Genomics
Chair: Dr. Salvatore D'Aniello
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09:30-10:20 Dr. Maria Ina Arnone:
Evolution of developmental regulatory programs from a single cell perspective: insights from echinoderms;
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10:20-11:10 Dr. Salvatore D'Aniello: Regulation of the early development in cephalochordates: examples of signalling pathways.
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11:10-11:30 Coffee break
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11:30-12:20 Dr. Juan Pascual-Anaya: Evolution of the vertebrate genome: insights from jawless vertebrates.
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12:20-13:00 Brainstorming
Chairs: 2 Students
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13:00 LUNCH
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Practical Session
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14:30-16:30 Dr. S. D'Aniello, Dr. M. I. Arnone and Dr. J. Pascual Anaya:
Molecular phylogeny tools and practical exercise.
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16:30 Visit of the Aquarium
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18:00 Social activity-Aperitif

Wednesday 12/10/2022
Session: Omics approach for EcoEvoDevo studies
Chair: Dr. Valeria Di Dato
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09:00-09:50 Dr. Luca Ambrosino:
Comparative genomics: sequence alignments and functional annotation;
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09:50-10:40 Dr. Valeria Di Dato and
Dr. Ida Orefice:
Omics technique: fundamental tools in the Systems Biology approach;
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10:40-11:30 Prof. Luigi Cerulo:
Reverse engineering of regulatory networks from transcriptomic data and their applications in functional genomics.
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11:30-11:50 Coffee break
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11:50-12:40 Dr. Daniele Iudicone:
Ocean omics.
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12:40-13:20 Brainstorming
Chairs: 2 Students
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13:30 LUNCH
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Practical Session
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15:00-18:00 Dr. L. Ambrosino and Prof. L. Cerulo:
Protein function prediction by sequence similarity searches of functional databases and master regulator analysis enriched with a promoter analysis
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Thursday 13/10/2022
Session: Biotech applications/Synthetic biology
Chair: Dr. Giovanna Romano
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09:00-09:50 Dr. Giovanna Romano:
From Systems Biology to blue biotech applications;
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09:50-10:40 Dr. Ernesto Mollo:
The chemical language linking marine ecology to applied sciences;
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10:40-11:30 Prof. Tilmann Weber:
Synthetic biology approaches to engineer natural product biosynthesis in actinomycetes.
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11:30-11:50 Coffee break
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11:50-12:40 Dr. Angela Sardo:
Let us give a hand to clean the environment! Potential of acquatic organisms for bioremediation and biomonitoring.
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12:40-13:20 Brainstorming
Chairs: 2 Students
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13:30 LUNCH
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Practical Session
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15:00-18:00 Dr. E. Mollo and Prof. T. Weber:
Feeding deterrence experiments and practical session on antiSMASH and MIBiG platforms.
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19:30 Social (Neapolitan Pizza) dinner (not included in the fee)

Friday 14/10/2022
Session: Let's integrate all!!
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Chair: Dr. V. Di Dato, Dr. S. D'Aniello, Dr. G. Romano, Dr. A. Sardo, Dr. I. Orefice
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09:00-11:00 Output of the brainstorming activities carried out during the school: resume, highlight of synergies among topics and methods, major points to be implemented, ideas to apply the Systems Biology approach. Student will form two groups and discuss the point, then, after the coffee break, they will present the output.
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11:00-11:30 Coffee break
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11:30-12:30 Student presentations
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12:30-13:00 Closing remarks