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Selfish Immune System

Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics

Selfish Immune System

Immune system is hierarchically above the rest of the organism in energy and nutrients allocation during immune challenge. Immune system produces signals that suppress activity of other tissues leaving thus energy to immune cells.

by Tomas Dolezal and Adam Bajgar - Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics

Immune response is energetically demanding process. Immune cells, upon activation, switch their metabolism to increased aerobic glycolysis to support rapid synthesis of macromolecules; this switch is associated with increased glucose consumption by immune cells. Increased aerobic glycolysis was originally described by Otto Warburg in cancer cells and it is now recognized as being common for proliferating cells (Vander Heiden 2009), for example during development (Tennessen 2011).

Selfish immune system” is a theoretical concept recently articulated by Rainer Straub (Straub 2014) with inspiration of “selfish brain theory”. These concepts put brain and immune system hierarchically above the rest of the organism in allocating energy/nutrition. During the fight-or-flight response or trauma/infection, the organism vitally depends on either the central nervous system or the immune system and thus these organs are privileged in energy allocation.

According to Straub, insulin resistance, leading to lower consumption of glucose and hyperglycemia, is a physiological way for the brain or immune system to usurp energy/nutrition during acute stress from the rest of the organism because brain and immune cells themselves do not become insulin resistant. Chronic insulin resistance, caused by chronic inflammation or by chronic mental activation, then leads to various pathologies such as diabetes, obesity, metabolic syndrome or chronic inflammatory diseases.

Experimental evidence demonstrating the selfish behavior of immune system, especially during physiological reactions and not during disease state, is largely missing. We have recently found that immune cells release adenosine which causes a systemic metabolic switch leading to suppression of development. Results were published in PLoS Biology.

We use infection of fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) larvae by a parasitoid wasp Leptopilina boulardi (you can watch YouTube video with infection here). Wasp injects its egg into Drosophila larva and if larva does not destroy the egg, the emerged wasp larva consumes the host – the parasitoid can be seen as an alien in the insect world. However, the host larva can mount a robust immune response and destroy the egg before the alien emerges from the egg. The host must rapidly produce specialized immune cells called lamellocytes which will encapsulate the parasitoid egg and destroy it by melanization – a toxic reaction within the capsule.

Fig 1. e-Ado-mediated systemic metabolic switch during parasitoid wasp infection of Drosophila larva.

Parasitoid egg is first recognized by circulating hemocytes which activate proliferation and differentiation of specialized immune cells, called lamellocytes, from pro-hemocytes. Lamellocytes eventually encapsulate and destroy the egg. Activated pro-hemocytes increase aerobic glycolysis, increasing thus significantly glucose consumption. They usurp the glucose from the rest of the organism by releasing adenosine. Extracellular adenosine (e-Ado) suppresses metabolism of other tissues by signaling via adenosine receptor (AdoR) and this slows down the larval development.

Such a robust immune response requires a significant amount of energy. Developing Drosophila larva obtains this energy by slowing down the development, leaving thus the energy to immune response. During the infection, activated immune system is allowed to behave selfishly. We have shown that activated immune cells, which must proliferate and differentiate into lamellocytes, produce adenosine that serves as a “selfish signal”. Extracellular adenosine (e-Ado) then suppresses the rest of the organism, leading to lower consumption of glucose by non-immune tissues and thus to a delay in development. This systemic metabolic switch is crucial for rapid production of lamellocytes and thus for effective immune response against the parasitoid egg. When we block adenosine transport from immune cells or when we block adenosine signaling, infected larva does not slow down the development, consumes the energy required by immune system and thus the resistance to parasitoid drastically drops. This represents a clear experimental evidence for a trade-off between development and immune response and a “selfish” behavior of immune system during stress. The selfishness of the immune system is crucial for effective immune response.

Bibliography:

  • Bajgar A, Kucerova K, Jonatova L, Tomcala A, Schneedorferova I, et al. (2015) Extracellular Adenosine Mediates a Systemic Metabolic Switch during Immune Response. PLoS Biol 13(4): e1002135. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.1002135
  • Vander Heiden MG, Cantley LC, Thompson CB. Understanding the Warburg Effect: The Metabolic Requirements of Cell Proliferation. Science. 2009;324: 1029–1033.
  • Straub RH. Insulin resistance, selfish brain, and selfish immune system: an evolutionarily positively selected program used in chronic inflammatory diseases. Arthritis Res Ther. 2014;16: S4.Tennessen JM, Baker KD, Lam G, Evans J, Thummel CS. The Drosophila estrogen-related receptor directs a metabolic switch that supports developmental growth. Cell Metab. 2011;13: 139–148.

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Education

Department of Computer Science

  • Red Hat Academy

    You can study at our department the Red Hat Academy courses. All materials are in english language. Courses are enrolled like any other faculty course. The following courses are currently available:

    UAI/796 Red Hat academy I

    Content

    1 Accessing the Command Line
    2 Managing Files From the Command Line
    3 Getting Help in Red Hat Enterprise Linux
    4 Creating, Viewing, and Editing Text Files
    5 Managing Local Linux Users and Groups
    6 Controlling Access to Files with Linux File System Permissions
    7 Monitoring and Managing Linux Processes
    8 Controlling Services and Daemons
    9 Configuring and Securing OpenSSH Service
    10 Analyzing and Storing Logs
    11 Managing Red Hat Enterprise Linux Networking
    12 Archiving and Copying Files Between Systems
    13 Installing and Updating Software Packages
    14 Accessing Linux File Systems
    15 Using Virtualized Systems

    UAI/798 Red Hat academy II

    Content

    1 - Automating Installation with Kickstart
    2 - Using Regular Expressions with grep
    3 - Creating and Editing Text Files with vim
    4 - Scheduling Future Linux Tasks
    5 - Managing Priority of Linux Processes
    6 - Controlling Access to Files with Access Control Lists (ACLs)
    7 - Managing SELinux Security
    8 - Connecting to Network-defined Users and Groups
    9 - Adding Disks, Partitions, and File Systems to a Linux System
    10 - Managing Logical Volume Management (LVM) Storage
    11 - Accessing Network Storage with Network File System (NFS)
    12 - Accessing Network Storage with SMB
    13 - Controlling and Troubleshooting the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Boot Process
    14 - Limiting Network Communication with firewalld

    UAI/799 Red Hat academy III

    Content

    1 - Controlling Services and Daemons
    2 - Managing IPv6 Networking
    3 - Configuring Link Aggregation and Bridging
    4 - Network Port Security
    5 - Managing DNS for Servers
    6 - Configuring Email Transmission
    7 - Providing Remote Block Storage
    8 - Providing File-based Storage
    9 - Configuring MariaDB Databases
    10 - Providing Apache HTTPD Web Service
    11 - Writing Bash Scripts
    12 - Bash Conditionals and Control Structures
    13 - Configuring the Shell Environment

    More information on the Red Hat Academy home pages

  • Block teaching and one-week courses

    Actual list of one-week courses and block teaching.

    For actually opened courses of block teaching and one-week courses for winter semester 2020/2021, see the attached file.

    Bellow are relevant courses. They are opened if the number of registered students is at least 7.  

    List of courses of block teaching

    Block teaching

    • 4 terms 
    • during semester
    • every Friday
    • morning (8:00 – 12:45 hours) or afternoon (13:00 – 17:45 hours)
    • building C1, room PČ4

    Winter semester

    ÚAI/620 Strategic management of company information (Čížek) – odd year e.g. 2017/2018, 2019/2020
    ÚAI/623 Design and implementation of security in in business applications (Horal) – every year
    ÚAI/624  Web 2.0 and web services (Urbánek) – even year e.g. 2018/2019, 2020/2021
    ÚAI/634 New EU legislation for protection of personal data (Neuwirt) – odd year
    ÚAI/688 Coaching and mentoring (Zákostelecká) – every year
    ÚAI/713 Electronic business (Doubek) – every year
    ÚAI/719 Means of personal identification (Rašek) – every year

    Summer semester

    ÚAI/608 Computer architecture – data centers  (Němec) – every year
    ÚAI/612  Cloud solutions (Urbánek) – even year e.g. 2018/2019, 2020/2021
    ÚAI/615 Life cycle of IT order (Skokan) – every year
    ÚAI/629 Development of web applications in Java (Jaroš) – even year
    ÚAI/635 Data warehouses and business intelligence (Zýka) – even year
    ÚAI/688 Coaching and mentoring (Zákostelecká) – every year
    ÚAI/711 Electronic banking (Doubek) – every year
    ÚAI/714 Means of personal identification (Neuwirt) – even year
    ÚAI/716 PKI and digital signature (Boháček) – odd year e.g.2017/2018, 2019/2020
    ÚAI/736 Security standards and norms (Novák Luděk) – every year

    List of one-week courses

    One-week courses
    - run during whole week
    - when semester ends (mostly during examination period)
    - always from 8:00 to 13:00 
    - room PČ4

    Winter semester

    ÚAI/614 Virtualizace (Němec) – even year
    ÚAI/675 3D modelling and printing (Geyer) - every year
    ÚAI/700 Agile methods of software development (Balada) – every year
    ÚAI/701 Administration of Windows Server (Cafourek) – every year
    ÚAI/709  Weekly programming internship of C# - odd year
    ÚAI/742 Computers and mobile devices Apple (Pech) – every year
    ÚAI/790 Security of IPv6 (Vohnout) – every year
    ÚAI/793  Optical transmission systems (Radil) - odd year
    ÚAI/796 Red Hat Academy- System administration I (Pech) - every year
    ÚAI/799  Red Hat Academy- System administration III (Pech) - every year

    Summer semester

    ÚAI/603 Chosen algorithms of coding and decision (Ivánek) – odd year
    ÚAI/611  Optical fibers and high-speed distributions (Neužil) – odd year
    ÚAI/613 Design and installation of company cloud (Němec) – odd year
    ÚAI/618 Digital document management (Macek) – odd year
    ÚAI/619  Identity and Access Management (Vohnoutová, Horal) – every year
    ÚAI/675 3D modelling and printing (Geyer) - every year
    ÚAI/702 UNIXU administration (Pech) – every year
    ÚAI/721 Presentation skills - internship (Říhová) – every year
    ÚAI/734  Weekly internship of Java programming (Čížek) – every year
    ÚAI/748 Weekly internship of robotics (Novák Milan) – every year
    ÚAI/768  Windows 10 (Cafourek) – every year
    ÚAI/769  Advanced administration of Windows Server (Cafourek) – every year
    ÚAI/796 Red Hat Academy - System administration I (Pech) - every year
    ÚAI/798  Red Hat Academy - System administration II (Pech) - every year

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Erasmus Programme

Department of Computer Science

We are announcing the module „Informatics and Bioinformatics“ (table below) for foreigner students, to be taught at the Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, České Budějovice (Budweis), Czech Republic. The module is open to all students aiming to learn concepts and methodologies for area Informatics and Bioinformatics.

To cover the students´ local expenses, an ERASMUS agreement is needed between your and our university, so that the students get the EU support for their stay. Please, should you be interested in an ERASMUS semester here, attending this module, please let us know as we should start related ERASMUS contract.

We finally hope that the ERASMUS agreement will also enable some of our students to spend some time at your University, now or in the future.

The deadline for application forms is June 30 for winter half and January 15 for summer half.

Looking forward for your response

Libor Dostalek
České Budějovice

Course

Credits

Winter/Summer half

Procedural Programming in C/C++

4

W

Algorithms and Data Structures

3

W

Parallel Programming

4

W

Bash Programming

3

S

Biostatistics

6

W

Introduction to Bioinformatics

5

S

Bioinformatics Project

8

W

Methods and Appl. of Molecular Modelling

4

W

Molecular Biology and Genetics

3

W

Introduction to Genomics

3

S

Calculus I

6

W

Calculus II

8

S

Linear Algebra

3

W

Academic Writing

2

S

Ethics

3

S

 

   

Object-oriented programming in Java

6

by agreement

Data Analysis

6

by agreement

Data Mining

5

by agreement

Project Management and its Economy

6

by agreement

Advanced Database Systems

4

by agreement

Computer Networks

6

by agreement

Computer Criminology

5

by agreement

Electronic Signature and PKI

3

by agreement

Computer Simulations

6

by agreement

 

 

 

Epigenetics

3

by agreement

Molecular Ecology

6

by agreement

 

 

 

CISCO Networking Academy (incl. CCNA) – 8 courses

each 3

each half

ORACLE Academy – 4 courses

each 3

each half

Open Source University (RedHat) – 2 courses

each 3

each half

TOEFL Preparation Course

3

each half

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Final Thesis

Department of Computer Science

  • Advices for Assignments and Writing of Final Thesis

    Final thesis is a student work, which the student must create to pass successfully bachelor's and (follow-up) master's study. In the final thesis, the studet proves his/her ability to solve independently a concrete task from the area Informatics and also apply knowledges gained during study.

    The topic of final thesis is primarily defined by the student with his/her chosen thesis supervisor. The student together with his/her thesis supervisor compose the chosen topic into "Diploma Thesis Assignment Protocol", which you can see here, Then, the student, his/her diploma thesis supervisor and the head of the department sign it. 

    Recommended steps:
    1. Choice of potential trainer from the list of employees ÚAI (in exceptional cases (on agreement) also external employee ÚAI can be the trainer). The potentional trainer should know the special area of the topic of the diploma thesis.
    2. Meeting with trainer, specifying of topic of the final thesis.  In this phase, the student should already have the idea at least about areas of interests of his/her final thesis. 
    3. Description of the topic in more details with supervisoring of the potential leader, who should evaluate if the chosen topic will be able to become a defensible final thesis.  
    4. The thesis supervisor creates first version of Diploma Thesis Assignment Protocol and sends it to the student. This process can have more iterations.
    5. Final version of Diploma Thesis Assignment Protocol is approved and delivered to the ÚAI secretary to start the signing process.
    6. Signed approved Diploma Thesis Assignment Protocol is picked up and immediatelly delivered to the PřF Study Department.

    For detailed information see here: https://www.prf.jcu.cz/dokumenty/opatreni-prodekanu.html

  • Recommended Steps for Writing and Defense

    This article is a small guide of the UAI student, which tells how to apply final thesis, how to write it in a proper way and how to prepare for the defense of the final thesis.

    When to apply for a bachelor's thesis

    According to the PřF rules, the bachelor's thesis must be applied for at least in the fifth semester. We recommend not to pospone this so much and apply for the thesis in the end of second or before the beginning of the third year. Later, interesting topics could be booked and also teachers could refuse the student because he/she is already fully busy. 

    With regards of time demands of diploma thesis, it is necessary to apply for it at the latest till the end of 1st semester of the follow-up study.

    What subject to enroll for the last school year

    It is necessary to enroll the subject FBI/890 in winter semester and subject FBI/891 in summer semester. The thesis supervisor decides about fulfillment.

    Next, the student must enroll subjects UAI/776 Diploma Thesis Seminar 1 in winter semester and UAI/777 Diploma Thesis Seminar 2 in summer semester. In these subjects, the student learns another basic information about the structure and consequences of final thesis and tries (obligatory!) the diploma thesis defense 'on trial'. Credits are given by the teacher. 

    How to write final thesis

    It is necessary to keep the structure of the final thesis acc.to rules of PřF. Information about requirements of the final thesis, the student learns from his/her thesis supervisor, the faculty web, and seminaries Diploma Seminary 1 and 2.

    Requirements of final thesis are described here.

    Minimal range of bachelor's thesis is 20 pages, ín case of master's thesis it is 40 pages (counted without attachements). Source codes, documents etc. shoud be part of attachements.

    Whom to ask, if you do not know anything

    If you are not sure, ask your thesis supervisor, a teacher of the Diploma Seminary, a secretary or a head of the department. Study department or study vice-dean ask only in case of general questions (follow this order until you have the needy answer).

    Some information, you can also find in the education web server Moodle , in seminaries Diploma Seminaries 1 and 2.

    Information of older co-students and friends could be distorted. Rules could evolve during years, and also count with the fact that rules could vary from various faculties and departments.

    When and how to submit final thesis

    Let your final thesis check by your thesis supervisor in advance. But "in advance" is not a moment before finalizing of the final thesis. Keep in mind that the thesis supersisor can have more thesis to check, so if you want advices from him/her, he/she must have time to do so. In addition, you also will need time to correct the thesis and put inside the objections. 

    Let your final thesis make completed in time (at least one week before submitting).

    You must submit your final thesis both to the study department and upload it to STAG in an digital form. Attention, the digital form and the printed form must match. 

    Until the same time, you must submit your final thesis to defense and submit to state exams through the faculty form. See here: https://www.prf.jcu.cz/dokumenty/formulare/pro-studenty.html

  • Legislation of Qualification Works

    Act on Higher Education Institutions
    and on Amendments and Supplements to Some Other Acts

    § 45

    Bachelor’s Degree Programmes

    (1) Bachelor’s degree programmes are intended to provide the qualifications for practicing a profession as well as for continuing to study in a Master’s degree programme

    (2) The standard length of studies including practical training is no less than three and no more than four years.

    (3) The degree programme is completed with a final state examination that as a rule includes the defence of a Bachelor’s thesis

    (4) Graduates of Bachelor’s degree programmes are awarded the academic degree of “bakalář” (“Bachelor”, abbreviated as “Bc.”, used in front of the name). There is an equivalent academic degree in the area of the fine arts – “bakalář umění” (“Bachelor of Fine Arts”, abbreviated as “BcA.”, used in front of the name). Graduates in fine arts who were admitted to studies pursuant to subsection 48 (2) are awarded their academic degrees only upon completing secondary education completed by the “maturitní zkouška” exam, or tertiary professional education at a conservatory. 

    § 47b

    Providing Public Access to Theses

    (1)Higher education institutions are obliged to make public, at no profit to themselves, the Bachelor’s, Master’s, Doctoral, and advanced Master’s (“rigorózní”) theses that have been defended at their institutions, including the readers’ reports and the document on the course of the defence and the results of the defence. The institution will do this by making available a database of these theses. The means of providing access to these theses is stipulated in the internal regulations of the higher education institution. The higher education institution will not make a Doctoral thesis public, if the Doctoral thesis was already made public by other means. 

    (2) Bachelor’s Master’s, Doctoral, and advanced Master’s (“rigorózní”) theses that have been submitted by candidates for defence must also be made available to the public at least five days before the defence at a place designated for this purpose in the internal regulations of the higher education institution, and where this is not the case, in the department or other place at the higher education institution where the defence of the thesis will be taking place. Any individual is entitled, at his/her own expense, to make extracts, copies or photocopies of theses thus made available.

    (3) By handing in a thesis, its author automatically gives assent to its being made public pursuant to the provisions of the Act, irrespective of the result of the defence.

    § 53

    State Examinations

    (1) State examinations take place before examination boards; state examinations and their results are public.

    (2) The right to examine at state examinations is reserved for professors, associate professors and specialists approved by the relevant Scientific, Artistic, or Academic Board

    (3) The Ministry may appoint additional members of examination boards, drawing on distinguished specialists in the relevant fields.

    Whole law

    The complete law you can see here

    Corresponding rules of South Bohemian University

    Study and examination regulations of JU

    Measure of Rector R 156 of 8 June 2010 on the publication of dissertations, diplomas, bachelor's and rigorous theses of JU students

    Rector's measure R 241 of 2 April 2013 for a unified visual style of JU

    Faculty of Science

    Measure of the Dean of the Faculty of Science number D48 dated 25.10.2011

    Measure of the Vice-Dean for Studies No. P 1 on the submission of bachelor's and master's theses at the Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia dated 15 April 2011

    (including relevant attachements)

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