Splash Biography



SEBASTIAN CALIRI, Yale Senior : MB&B : Splash Co-Director



Major: MB&B

College/Employer: Yale

Year of Graduation: 2012

Picture of Sebastian Caliri

Brief Biographical Sketch:

I am a senior from just north of Boston, MA, studying Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry. I am working towards a combined BS/MS degree; my master's thesis focuses on the structural biology of Phospholipase C gamma as well as identifying novel drug targets in melanoma.

I am currently applying to medical school and am interested in all things medicine, particularly oncology, pharmacology, and the pharmaceutical industry. I also speak (fairly) fluent Mandarin and have traveled to China twice, nearly completed the English major at Yale (favorites are Dante's Inferno and Joyce's Ulysses), and do a whole lot of other things on campus when I'm not busy with co-directing Splash!



Past Classes

  (Clicking a class title will bring you to the course's section of the corresponding course catalog)

S51: Next Generation DNA Sequencing in Splash Spring 12 (Mar. 24, 2012)
In 2008, the cost of sequencing a single human genome was nearly $10 million dollars. In 2012, obtaining the same results in half the time costs $1,000, a logarithmic gain of efficiency that puts Moore's Law to shame. In this class we will discuss the technologies that have made this revolution possible, starting in 1977 with Sanger and Gilbert through to the "next generation" Illumina and Ion Torrent sequencers of today. We will then dive in to the uses of these tools, from studying chromatin architecture to cancer and personalized medicine.


H126: Philosophy and Politics in the 21st Century in Splash Spring 12 (Mar. 24, 2012)
How can philosophy help us understand the world of the 21st century? On the one hand, it's been said that Western society has reached "the end of history," and that all the great philosophical questions about politics and government were answered when the Cold War ended in 1991. On the other, the chaos and unrest which has erupted worldwide in the past 20 years suggests that there are still philosophical battles being fought- they've just become harder to recognize. This class will cover a shortened history of modern political thought and discuss how contemporary philosophers have responded to events in the past decade, such as the September 11th attacks, the global war on terror and the financial crisis.