Zsuzsanna Sükösd: Viral RNA structure prediction: Decoding the language of evolution

Some viruses, such as HIV, store their genetic information in the form of RNA. Zsuzsanna Sukösd's PhD dissertation discusses models for RNA structure, which integrate theoretical and experimental information. This requires a highly interdisciplinary approach, where biology, mathematics and computer science meet. One of the central methods she has worked with was even developed to model languages in theoretical linguistics; here it is used to describe the language of evolution. Zsuzsanna has also applied her theoretical results to produce a new secondary structure for the HIV-1 genome.

Time: Friday, 22 November 2013 at 13.15
Place: 1110-223, the Lecture Theatre, Bioinformatics Research Centre (BIRC), Aarhus University
Title of dissertation: Viral RNA secondary structure prediction
Contact information: Zsuzsanna Sükösd, email: zs@birc.au.dk
Members of the assessment committee:
Professor Stuart F.J. Le Grice, RT Biochemistry Section, HIV Drug Resistance Program, National Cancer Institute – Frederick, USA
Professor Rolf Backofen, Lehrstuhl für Bioinformatik, Institut für Informatik, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Germany
Associate Professor Rikke Louise Meyer (chair), iNANO and Department of Bioscience, Aarhus University
Main supervisor:
Professor Jørgen Kjems, iNANO and Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Aarhus University
Co-supervisor:
Associate Professor Christian Nørgaard Storm Pedersen, Bioinformatics Research Centre (BiRC), Aarhus University
Language: The PhD dissertation will be defended in English.

The defence is public.
The dissertation is available for reading at the Graduate School of Science and Technology/GSST, Ny Munkegade 120, building 1521, room 112, 8000 Aarhus C.