Agenda

"We hear form the ECLT network" series:

"Researching living systems by considering modes of change and not endpoints"

Uri Hershberg
Associate Professor at the University of Haifa Department of Human Biology and at the Drexel University School of Biomedical Engineering, Science and Health System
Visiting Professor at ECLT

25th March 2022, 3.00 PM CET

>> To participate via ZOOM, please use link.

Abstract
One of the things that fascinate me about living systems is that they have goals but no function. In this talk I will present a few theoretical ideas about complex biological systems and some scientific observations I have made over the years, studying complexity and systems in flux as a way to understand basic rules of biological interaction. In most cases these have been attempts to study how systems change and / or what are their potentials for change rather than their functions. For instance, how is the potential for change in the adaptive immune system translated into actual patterns of diversity, and how is this implemented in a specific immune response?
I hope these ideas will lead to further questions and help start a conversation we can continue when I start my visit at ECLT.

Short bio
Uri Hershberg, PhD, is an Associate Professor at the University of Haifa Department of Human Biology and Visiting Associate Professor at the Drexel University School of Biomedical Engineering.  He leads the Systems Immunology Lab (SImLab), which studies how simple events at the molecular and cellular level of immune cell and pathogen interactions, lead to emergent phenomena of immune specificity and function in health and disease. A specific focus of the lab is the study of immunity and the diversification of B cells. It is one of the leading labs in the world for the study and computational analysis of B cell receptor sequence populations. More than 50 papers have been published from his research, on B cell immunology, but also about, complexity, adaptive cognition, evolution and how motion with memory discovers communities of interaction in biological networks. 

In his spare time Uri likes telling long meandering stories about nothing much that nonetheless come to a point. Despite many attempts to change for the better many of his decisions regarding future research directions are motivated by hearing someone say -- "you can't possibly imagine that....". So far it has always turned out that he can.

Honors 
2017 Group leader research group “Stochasticity and control of immune repertoires - an Example of Multi-Cellular Co-Operation” at the Israeli Institute for Advanced Studies, Hebrew University, Jerusalem
2017 Senior Fellow at the Martin Buber Society of Fellows in the Humanities and Social sciences, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel
2017/18   Invitee of the Australasian Society for Immunology (ASI)’s Visiting Speaker Program