April 03

2019 Floyd H. Gilles Lecture in Neuroscience Research: “One Brain, Many Genomes: Somatic Mutation and Genomic Diversity in Human Brain from Birth to Old Age”

Presented by:

Christopher Walsh, MD, PhD
Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Chief, Division of Genetics and Genomics, Boston Children’s Hospital
Bullard Professor of Pediatrics and Neurology, Harvard Medical School

Christopher A. Walsh MD, PhD, the Chief of Genetics and Genomics at Boston Children’s Hospital and Bullard Professor of Pediatrics and Neurology at Harvard Medical School, studies the development, function, and evolution of the human cerebral cortex.  His work ranges from studying neural stem cell proliferation and neuronal migration during prenatal development, to the identification of genes underlying dozens of human genetic disorders associated with autism, intellectual disability, and seizures, including a few that were also targets of the evolution that shaped our brain.  He is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and National Academy of Sciences.

Talk Summary:

Although it had long been assumed that the genomes of all neurons are identical, recent work has shown that every cell division causes mutations even during normal development, and that postmitotic neurons continue to accumulate mutations throughout life. Clonal somatic mutations create a mosaic brain that in some cases is associated with brain malformations, and autism spectrum disorders, and may underlie other neuropsychiatric diseases.  This lecture will discuss mutations that distinguish the genome of one neuron from another in human brain, and the implications for normal brain development, and neurological diseases.

Hosted by:

Pat Levitt, PhD
Chief Scientific Officer, Vice President, and Director, The Saban Research Institute
Simms/Mann Chair in Developmental Neurogenetics, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles
WM Keck Professor in Neurogenetics, Keck School of Medicine of USC
Department of Pediatrics
Editor-in-Chief, Mind, Brain and Education

Lunch:

Anita S. Watson Courtyard, The Saban Research Building

1:00pm-2:00pm

RSVP

RSVP is Required to tecpad@chla.usc.edu.

Brought to you by TSRI Office of Training, Education, Career Planning & Development (TECPAD)

Download the flyer here