Next IPBC talk by Pınar Önal on 13 May 2026

[Phila M. Msimang]

Greetings everyone,

The next talk of the International Philosophy of Biology Circle (IPBC) will be by Pınar Önal (Bilkent University, Türkiye). Spatio-Temporal Regulation of Transcription in Embryonic Development: Cis and Trans Factors.

This talk will take place on Wednesday 13 May 2026 at 18h00 – 19h00 SAST (South African Standard Time / UTC + 02:00). 

Please find the abstract for the talk below: 

Spatio-Temporal Regulation of Transcription in Embryonic Development: Cis and Trans Factors

Authors: Akdogan D., Temizkan D., Karagoz K., Chao J., Sener B., Ling J., Onal P. 

The precise spatial and temporal regulation of gene expression is critical for development and changes in this regulation are a primary source of phenotypic diversity. In eukaryotes, transcription factors together with cis-regulatory DNA motifs control spatio-temporal gene expression.

Bicoid (Bcd), a maternal factor in Drosophila melanogaster, is a transcription factor that establishes a concentration gradient extending from the anterior to the posterior of the embryo. This gradient activates target genes at the correct time and position, ensuring the correct patterning and segmentation.

In addition to its structurally conserved homeodomain that binds to DNA, Bcd contains effector regions that are intrinsically disordered yet functionally critical. However, the specific roles of these disordered regions in target-site specificity remain poorly understood. Furthermore, how the embryo interprets the Bcd gradient depends not only on Bcd concentration itself but also on interactions with antagonistic repressor factors. The identity of these antagonistic factors and how they influence the interpretation of the morphogen gradient are not yet fully understood.

In this context, our laboratory addresses two questions: 1) What is the role of effector regions in determining the DNA-binding specificity of transcription factors? 2) How do antagonistic gradients contribute to the interpretation of morphogen gradients?

In this presentation, I will share our approach towards answering these questions, some preliminary data and future research directions under these two primary headings.

You can join the meeting using this hyperlink that I will send with every meeting reminder: Join the meeting now. 

Our schedule of talks for the next few months is as follows: 

13 May 2026: Pınar Önal (Bilkent University, Türkiye). Repressors of Distinct Dynamics Multiply the Effect of a Single Morphogen.

10 June 2026: Victoria Shmidt (University of Graz, Austria), Simone De Angelis (University of Graz, Austria), and Peter Rohrbacher (Austrian Academy of Sciences). How to explore the past and present of race and anti-racism in science: Lessons from the Blumenbach case. (Discussion based on and around this text)

[Event in Türkiye during Northern Summer break (29 June - 5 July), meeting break in August] 

16 September 2026: Lucas Matthews (Columbia University, USA) How the problem of locality turned into the problem of portability.  (See text here)

7 October 2026: Philippe Huneman (CNRS/Université Paris I Sorbonne, France).  Talk on When Metaphysics Meets Biology. Kantian Approaches to the Concept of Organism. (Text available here)

Please do send me an e-mail if you would like to propose to present your work on any topic in the philosophy of biology in our series. 

We now have a Bluesky profile that you can follow here: https://bsky.app/profile/phil-bio-circle.bsky.social

Best wishes,

 

Phila M. Msimang

Senior Lecturer in the Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences

Co-ordinator of the International Philosophy of Biology Circle

Fellow of the South African Young Academy of Science

Secretary of the Azanian Philosophical Society

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