Topic: active learning

Marty Weissman presents a University of California, Santa Cruz course that develops mathematics for the life sciences through models of biological dynamics. Adapted from UCLA’s LS30 course, it integrates calculus, dynamical systems and linear algebra. The seminar describes the curriculum and its active learning discussion sections, where deliberate choices range from custom dynamical-system simulators to paper exercises and blackboard work. Drawing on two years of teaching, Weissman reflects on which approaches appear to support student learning and the development of the teaching team.

Lead the proteome-editor experimental team in the Allen Institute AI BioDesign initiative. Build a rapid design–test–learn pipeline for de novo protein degraders, oversee cell-based library screening and degrader evaluation, and partner with machine-learning researchers on active learning and model-ready datasets. The role combines scientific programme leadership, mentoring and cross-team collaboration, with emphasis on improving experimental throughput and turnaround time. The primary work location is 700 Dexter Avenue North, Seattle, with most working hours on site; any remote work must take

Develop synthetic cells for sustainable biomanufacturing in Wilhelm Huck’s group and the European Propel consortium. The work combines liquid-handling robots, microscopy and active learning to optimise liposomes and cell-free protein production, ultimately converting waste streams into useful biomaterials. These full-time appointments initially last one year, with potential extensions of one or two years. Gross monthly salary is EUR 3,706–5,760 according to experience. Apply online by 15 October 2026; recruitment may close earlier when suitable candidates are found. The preferred start is 1 No

Recent advances in techniques for monitoring and perturbing neural populations have greatly enhanced our ability to study circuits in the brain. In particular, two-photon holographic optogenetics now enables precise photostimulation of experimenter-specified groups of individual neurons, while simultaneous two-photon calcium imaging enables the measurement of ongoing and induced activity across the neural population. Despite the enormous space of potential photostimulation patterns and the time-consuming nature of photostimulation experiments, very little algorithmic work has been done to dete

Visual working memory (VWM) is limited in capacity, but memorizing meaningful objects may refine this limitation. However, meaningless and meaningful stimuli usually differ perceptually and an object’s association with meaning is typically already established before the actual experiment. We applied a strict control over these potential confounds by asking observers (N=45) to actively learn associations of (initially) meaningless objects. To this end, a change detection task presented Chinese characters, which were meaningless to our observers. Subsequently, half of the characters were consist