Picower Lecture with Dr. Fred "Rusty" Gage
Description
CANCELLED -- To be rescheduled for Fall 2017.
Neurogenesis is a process wherein primitive, uncommitted cells transition through a series of choice points as they acquire ever more mature fates. In this seminar, I will report on three new findings related different phases of this process. In the first part, I will report on the discovery that nuclear pore proteins play a pivotal role in maintaining neural stem cell fate, both in vitro and in vivo. The second part of the seminar will concern the use of human induced pluripotent cells to reveal that when the initial rate of maturation in progenitor cells to neurons accelerates in disease, defects in mature neuronal function emerge. Finally, I will discuss our new approach to developing organoids to model 3-D elements of more mature human brain function.
Speaker Bio
Fred H. Gage, Ph.D., a Professor in the Laboratory of Genetics, joined The Salk Institute in 1995. He received his Ph.D. in 1976 from The Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Gage's work concentrates on the adult central nervous system and unexpected plasticity and adaptability to environmental stimulation that remains throughout the life of all mammals. In addition, he models human neurological and psychiatric disease in vitro using human stem cells. Finally his lab studies the genomic mosaicism that exists in the brain as a result of mobile elements that are active during neurogenesis. Prior to joining Salk, Dr. Gage was a Professor of Neuroscience at the University of California, San Diego. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a Member of the National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine, and American Philosophical Society, a foreign member of the European Molecular Biology Organization and a Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Dr. Gage has served as President of the Society for Neuroscience in 2002, and past President for the International Society for Stem Cell Research 2012.