Columbia University Systems Biology Initiative
Current & Upcoming Events
Words can only describe our organization so much. Learn about our curriculum, community impact and how we support our members here at Columbia Systems Biology Initiative by joining us in one of our upcoming events, activities and local projects.
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Get Better Grades...with Sleep!
December 9th, 2022 6:30- 7:30pm EST, Uris 328
Do you want better grades? Come learn how sleep can help you improve memory, performance, health, and more! We will talk about the effects of sleep and how to be better at it, so that you can ace your finals!
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Systems Biology Fall 2022 Expo
December 9th, 2022 5:00- 6:30pm EST, Uris 330
Interested in synthetic biology? Interested in participating in research in these fields? Join us at the Systems Biology Expo on Friday, December 9th from 5:00 - 6:30 PM to hear research presentations from Columbia University researchers in synthetic biology.
We have invited Department Chair of Chemical Engineering Dr. Scott Banta, Postdoc Dr. Carlotta Ronda from Professor Harris Wang's lab, and PhD student Miaoci Zhang from Professor Mijo Simunovic's lab to present their work and findings. Each speaker gives a different perspective from their current roles in academia and we invite anyone looking to learn more about synthetic biology at all stages of academia to attend. Come with any questions you may have during their Q&A sessions, where light refreshments will be provided!
Demystifying scRNA-seq Analysis in R
December 5th, 2022 8:00- 6900pm EST, Uris 329
If you’re curious about single cell RNA-seq analysis, join us for a guided walkthrough of an analysis of D. Melanogaster data in Seurat. Attendees will be familiarized with the practical steps of scRNA-seq analysis, as well as the underlying statistical principles. All experience levels are welcome. Please install RStudio prior to attending.
Introduction to Homomorphic Encryption
October 20th, 2022 5:00- 6:00pm EST, Uris 329
Does a future where we can diagnose and treat patients without requiring access to private health data exist? Why not! Join this event to see a simple introduction to cryptography and its potential application to genomics. We will discuss simple and complex encryption methods, as well as an application to patient - hospital scenario. Due to the short length and complexity of this event, we will likely not be able to provide a guided walkthrough of code. However, our goal will be to provide new programmers a proof of concept as well as a strong footing to use current encryption libraries.
Fall Interest Meeting
September 14th, 2022 7:30-8:00pm EST, Lerner Roone Arledge Cinema Room
Interested in what happens when big data meets biomedical science? Stop by our interest meeting to find out! Whether you have an interest in teaching, algorithms, bioengineering, or want to meet faculty doing cutting edge work in the life sciences, we have something for you!
Past Events
Here's a list of past SBI events to provide members with an idea of the wide range of panels, workshops and collaborations our club has been involved with! We are constantly hosting events system biology related all year round and please join us in future events!
RNNs for the Analysis of EEGs
March 29th, 2022 7:00- 8:00pm EST
Learn to use different recurrent neural network modalities and the keras tuner to be able to read minds. This presentation will show how to use statistically derived features and build a pipeline to test different RNN modalities and make prediction on mental states. All levels welcome!
Introduction to MATLAB and Deep Learning
February 23th, 2022 7:00- 8:00pm EST
All experience levels welcome. For the next event in our computational workshop series, we’ll be giving an introduction to MATLAB and deep learning. Participants will be guided through obtaining a MATLAB license via Columbia, learning the basics of MATLAB, and working hands-on with deep learning and image recognition.
Systems Biology X Entrepreneurship Expo 2022
January 27th, 2022 6:00- 7:30pm EST
The System Biology Initiative Expo is a semesterly event where leading scientists share their work and provide an opportunity for Columbia students to learn about computational biology, synthetic biology, and other emerging fields in systems biology and biomedical engineering.
On Thursday, January 27th from 6:00-7:30pm, we are hosting an expo centering on start-ups and entrepreneurship in systems biology, featuring Prof. Sam Sia from Columbia BME, Prof. Zev Williams from CUIMC, and Dr. Ravi Sheth who is a BME PhD alum. Join us if you are interested in learning about innovative biotechnologies and how lab research spins off to companies!
Spring Interest Meeting
January 24th, 2022 9:00- 9:30pm EST
Interested in what happens when big data meets biomedical science? Stop by our interest meeting to find out! Whether you have an interest in teaching, algorithms, bioengineering, or want to meet faculty doing cutting edge work in the life sciences, we have something for you!
Introduction to R Programming
December 3rd, 2021 3:30- 4:30pm EST
Come join SBI at our next computational workshop series, which will cover the basics of R programming and introduce you to the syntax of the language! No experience is necessary and all members at all levels are welcome.
The World of Differential Splicing
October 24th, 2021 6:00- 7:00pm EST
How are new gene transcripts discovered? How are they verified? How can bioinformatics innovate this process? Find out Oct. 14th! Our journey will start with how expressed sequence tags were critical pieces of evidence starting in the early 2000s to put together the transcriptome and end with current technologies such as SUPPA2 which perform differential splicing analysis from RNAseq data. This session is appropriate for those interested in computational biology with at least a background in introductory biology.
Novel Anabolics and Health
November 4th, 2021 7:00- 8:00pm EST
Join us Thursday, November 4 at 7 pm for a literature review and discussion of RAD140, MK677, and LGD4033, which are new performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs). Selective Androgen Receptor Molecules (SARMS) and similar PEDs have come into vogue as safe alternatives to traditional steroids. The absence of human trials has contributed to this misconception, and amateurs as young as 16 are taking these research chemicals to improve muscle mass. However, an absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, and a few case studies have revealed darker consequences.
Using ML to Determine Dementia Severity in Alzheimer's MRI Scans
April 15th, 2021 3:00- 4:00pm EST
Machine learning has a phenomenal range of applications in the health sciences. This tutorial will go over the complete pipeline to build a model that can determine the severity of dementia in Alzheimer's patients from their MRI image. The model will be built using TensorFlow 2.3. All proficiency levels welcomed!
Fall Interest Meeting
September 16th, 2021 7:00- 8:00pm EST
Interested in what happens when big data meets biomedical science? Stop by our interest meeting to find out! Whether you have an interest in teaching, algorithms, bioengineering, or want to meet faculty doing cutting edge work in the life sciences, we have something for you!
Case Study:
Antibiotic Induced Cardiac Arrest
April 9th, 2021 8:00- 8:30pm EST
For our third case study presentation, learn about the strange case of an antibiotic induced cardiac arrest in a 9-year old cancer surviver. Through this presentation, we’ll explore the cardiac system, emergency medicine, and a rare life-threatening syndrome.
Downstream Analysis of Pseudoaligned RNAseq Data
March 30th, 2021 5:00-6:00pm EST
Learn about the different kinds of downstream analysis performed on pseudoaligned data output from programs such as kallisto (https://pachterlab.github.io/kallisto/) and salmon (https://salmon.readthedocs.io/en/latest/salmon.html). Topics include transcript summarization, differential gene expression, gene ontology and gene set expression analysis. With these various techniques we will begin to understand how insights are gleaned from RNAseq data. Appropriate for first-time, aspiring or proficient bioinformaticians.
Introduction to RNA-Seq and Bioconductor
March 12th, 2021 6:00-7:00pm EST
Understanding gene expression is a central focus in Biology. Some disease pathways find their root in a change of expression levels at the gene level. To study the transcriptome and uncover underlying problems such as these, bioinformaticians use RNA-seq. In this workshop we will go over the basic science behind RNA-seq, what it is, how to interpret FASTQ and BAM data, then an intro to analyzing that data using an open-source R package called Bioconductor. No prior experience is required!
Systems Biology Expo Spring 2021
March 26th, 2021 8:00- 9:30pm EST
Interested in systems biology, computational biology, or biomedical engineering? Interested in participating in research in these fields? Join us at the Systems Biology Expo on Friday, March 26th to hear research presentations from leading systems biology researchers from Columbia and MIT.
We have invited David Bartel from the Whitehead Institute at MIT and Harris Wang and Muhammed AlQuraishi from Columbia’s Department of Systems Biology to give presentations in machine learning in molecular and structural models, engineering the microbiome, and post-transcriptional gene regulation. These researchers are leading their respective fields, so this is a great opportunity to learn about the frontiers of these fields. Come with any questions you may have during their Q&A sessions!
Flyer and event schedule:
https://drive.google.com/.../1I4Zg.../view...
Introduction to Evolution & Genetics
February 12th, 2021 6:00-7:00pm EST
Join us at our next computational biology series workshop to learn more about the fundamentals of how to infer evolutionary relationships using genetic data! The workshop will comprise of two parts beginning with an introductory discussion/seminar and then followed by a tutorial and demonstration.
Systems Biology Expo 2020
November 13th, 2020 4:00-9:35pm EST
Interested in systems biology, computational biology, or biomedical engineering? Interested in participating in research in these fields at Columbia? Join us at the Systems Biology Expo on Friday, November 13th to hear leading researchers introduce their lab’s work and give research presentations, and pick up a few new skills in computational biology workshops. You’ll also get a chance to personally chat with our speakers!
Introduction to RNA-Sequencing Data Analysis
November 13th, 2020 4:00-5:00pm EST
What genes are altered across different samples? How do we interpret these to draw biologically relevant conclusions? How do we choose between all of the different software packages out there? As the number of available RNAseq samples increases exponentially (https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.2002477) there is more work to be done in this field than ever before. This workshop will include two parts: a brief introductory presentation explaining RNA sequencing from a biological context and then an interactive programming session. See you there!
Analyzing T-cell Receptor data for COVID-19
November 13th, 2020 8:35-9:35pm EST
In this intermediate level python workshop, we will be working with several large databases of sequenced t-cell receptors from patients who were diagnosed with COVID-19. Participates only need basic python skills.
Identifying Pneumonia using Computer Vision Workshop
October 16, 2020 1:00-2:00pm EST
Machine learning has a phenomenal range of applications, including in health and diagnostics. This tutorial will explain the complete pipeline for a computer vision model, from loading data to predicting results. We will build an X-ray image classification model from scratch to predict whether an X-ray scan shows presence of pneumonia.
The in silico Revolution: Computational Biology Panel
Math 203
April 18, 2019 7:00-8:00pm EST
Interested in computational biology and bioinformatics? Want to learn which classes, research, and skills will help you succeed in the field? Want to become the next Bill Gates of biotech?
Join the Columbia Undergraduate Science Journal and Columbia University Systems Biology Initiative for a panel of three accomplished scientists working at the interface of computer science and biology!
Professor Itsik Pe'er, Department of Computer Science, develops and applies computational methods for the analysis of high-throughput data in germline human genetics with a focus on characterizing genetic variation that is unique to isolated populations, including the effects of such variation on phenotype.
Pandas Bioinformatics Workshop
Hamilton 707
March 28, 2019 7:00-8:00pm EST
Interested in bioinformatics? Don’t know how to get started? Join us this Thursday in Hamilton 707 to learn how to use the pandas and sci-kit libraries to analyze and visualize gene expression data! We will be going over genetic data analytics and interactive graphing using Python!
Please have Anaconda or another Python IDE installed onto your computer before the workshop so we can get started right away!
Modeling Biological Systems with MATLAB
Hamilton 303
February 14, 2019 7:00-8:00pm EST
February 21, 2019 7:00-8:00pm EST
Interested in computational biology? Want to learn more about modeling living systems? Want to gain experience with MATLAB and data visualization? This workshop will introduce you to GUIs, heatmaps, phase portraits, and oscillations. No experience needed! All majors welcome!
New World High School Systems and Synthetic Biology Expo Workshop
Pupin 214
April 5, 2019
This workshop is intended to give high school students the opportunity to explore the fields of systems and synthetic biology. Students will learn the biological concepts and techniques essential to fields, and the frontiers of current research in the field, involving actitivies that develop scientific thinking. Class is taught by Columbia undergraduate students.
High School Synthetic Biology Workshop: Genetic Engineering and Its Real-World Applications
Hamilton
October - November 2018
February - March 2019
This workshop is intended to give high school students the opportunity to explore genetic engineering in the field of synthetic biology. Students will learn the critical techniques used within genetic engineering, the theoretical basis of these techniques and synthetic biology as a whole, and the frontiers of current research in the field. Also, students will work together to create their own scientific projects in synthetic biology and genetic engineering. Classes are taught by Columbia undergraduate students with guest speakers of Columbia undergraduate students, Columbia postdoctoral fellows, and/or Columbia professors.
New World High School Synthetic Biology Expo Workshop
Hamilton 516
November 16, 2018
This workshop is intended to give high school students the opportunity to explore the field of synthetic biology. Students will learn the biological concepts essential to synthetic biology and the frontiers of current research in the field. Class is taught by Columbia undergraduate students.
New World High School Synthetic Biology Expo Workshop
New World High School
May 30-31, 2018
This workshop is intended to give high school students the opportunity to explore the field of synthetic biology. Students will learn the biological concepts essential to synthetic biology and the frontiers of current research in the field. Class is taught by Columbia undergraduate students.
Crash Course in Cloning
Mudd 327
April 22, 2018
CRISPR: Power, Potential, and Innovation
Mudd 833
April 20, 2018
High School Advanced Principles of Synthetic Biology Workshop
Hamilton
February - April 2018
This workshop is intended to give high school students the opportunity to explore the field of synthetic biology. Students will learn the critical techniques used within synthetic biology, the theoretical basis of these techniques and synthetic biology as a whole, and the frontiers of current research in the field. Also, students will work together to create their own scientific projects in synthetic biology. Classes are taught by Columbia undergraduate students with guest speakers of Columbia undergraduate students, Columbia postdoctoral fellows, and/or Columbia professors.
SBI Journal Club
Lerner 568
November 19, 2017