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100:00:05,501 --> 00:00:09,045[Music]Hi, my name is Barbara Conradt and I ama Professor of Biology atthe Ludwig-MaximiliansUniversity Munich. During the next sixweeks, I will be exploring programmedcell death with you. With me today areSebastian Lhr, Ryan Sherrardand Saroj Regmi, the three TAs, who wereabsolutely critical in getting thiscourse together and who will be workingwith us over the next few weeks. Why didI decide to offer a courseon programmed cell death?I have been fascinatedby programmed cell death ever since Iwas a graduate student at UCLA and in1992, took a journal clubon programmed cell death.As you will find out later

this week, not much was known aboutprogrammed cell death at that time. I hadto present a paper published that yearon the identification of the ced-9 genefrom the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans,a model organism that I hadnot yet heard of.This paper was about the geneticcharacterization of the ced-9 gene,which later turned out to encode a proteinthat can block programmed cell death.By taking this journal club and by havingto read this paper, I became fascinated

not only by programmed cell death butalso by the model organism C. elegansand by genetic studies. During my PhD,I was trained mainly as a biochemist.I did have some geneticsas an undergraduate.However, I had neverused a genetic approachfor my work and I didnt quite understandeverything that was in this ced-9 paper.A few weeks later, I had the chanceto hear a couple of talks at UCLAfrom investigators who also used genetic

studies in C. elegans to dissectspecific biological processes. And thosewere Cori Bargmann,now at Rockefeller University,who talked about her work on chemotaxisand Barbara Meyer from UC Berkeleywho talked abouther work on sex determination. Bothare great scientists and great speakers!After I had listened to their talks,

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I made up my mind. For my postdoc,I wanted to studyprogrammed cell death inC. elegans using genetic approaches.In 1994, I started my postdoc in the labof Bob Horvitz at MIT. At the time,Bob Horvitzs lab was theonly lab in the worldthat worked on programmed cell death inC. elegans. I got lucky and managedto identify a new component ofthe genetic pathway ofprogrammed cell death inC. elegans. And when I started myown lab, we continued to work on variousaspects of programmed cell death inC. elegans. And we stillare working on variousaspects of this really cool process.Its been almost 20 yearssince I started in this fieldand we have learnt a lot during this time.But, as you will see laterduring the course,

there are some major questions that stillhave not been answered.We are continuing to workon those and we are still having fun.I hopethat you will enjoy the course! I alsohope that I will manage to get acrossto you my knowledge ofprogrammed cell deathas well as my fascination for this veryimportant process.Hi, I'm Ryan and Iam originally from the city of Saint John

on the east coast of Canada, eh, butI have been living in Germanyfor a few years now.Having just completed myMasters in Biochemistry, here at theLudwig Maximilian University of Munich, Iam now a PhD student in thelab of Barbara Conradt.Just like the topic you willlearn about in this course, I studyprogrammed cell death in multi-cellularanimals and specifically,how it is regulated.

Over the coming weeks, we hopeto help you understand this complex processof cells death, why it is important,and offer you a glimpse into some of themethods we use in our own lab.Feel free to contact us on social media.via facebook, twitter or email.Hello there, my name is Saroj.I come from thesouthern part of Nepal. For the past

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two years, I have beenliving in Munich as aPhD student in the lab of Barbara Conradt.If you have ever taken an introductorybiology course, you probably knowabout mitochondria. What you might notknow is that they are dynamic organellesthat are constantly fusing and constantlydividing in a cell.In the lab, I study this processand its role in aging and development.As one of the TAs for this course, Iwill be monitoring the course forums andanswering any questions you may have.We hope that you will enjoy the courseand that it will provideyou with agood understanding ofprogrammed cell death.Hi, Im Sebastian, and I recentlystarted my PhD here in the lab of BarbaraConradt at the LMU. I am originallyfrom a small town near Dsseldorf, andfunny as it may seem, I am the only

german PhD student here in the lab.I completed my Masters in Biology herein Munich with a focus on human biologyand epigenetics. I also branched into thefield of bioinformatics, and developeda webserver for motif identificationcall XXmotif. Like the topic of thiscourse, I study programmed cell deathin the nematode wormC. elegans with a focuson the egl-1 gene and itsinteracting factors.During the course, I hope that we

can give you an interesting insightinto our work including all the backgroundknowledge you will need for this.If you have questions feel free to contactus through the Coursera platform.[Music]