EPFL BioE Talks SERIES "From Genes to Proteins: A New Lens for Understanding Neurological Disease"
Event details
| Date | 18.11.2024 |
| Hour | 12:15 › 13:15 |
| Speaker | Prof. Vincenzo A. Gennarino, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York City, NY (US) |
| Location | Online |
| Category | Conferences - Seminars |
| Event Language | English |
WEEKLY EPFL BIOE TALKS SERIES (sandwiches provided)
About the speaker and his research:
Education & Training:
- MS, 2005 Biological Sciences, University of Palermo, Faculty of Medicine (Italy)
- PhD, 2009 Medical Genetics, Second University of Naples (Italy)
- Fellowship: 2006 University of Milan (Italy)
Research:
My lab’s overall goal is to understand the molecular mechanisms driving neurological diseases, including isolated neuropsychiatric features, in the hope of ultimately devising viable therapies.
Neuroscience made enormous strides during the 1990’s with the advent of molecular genetic techniques that allowed us to identify myriad disease genes and manipulate them in animal models from flies to mice. In the 2000’s, we came to appreciate the importance of epigenetic mechanisms to neurobiology, and now we are on the cusp of a new field that might be called “RNA neurobiology.”
RNA biology may, in fact, have particular importance in the brain, given the extremely dynamic nature of neuronal synapses. The post-synaptic compartment contains polysomes, which indicates that translation is crucial for higher-order brain activity, and protein synthesis has long been thought to be required for memory consolidation. Small wonder, then, that disruption of RNA-binding proteins is associated with wide-ranging syndromes that affect motor control, behavior, and cognition.
My interest in RNA-binding proteins centers on their role in post-transcriptional regulation of proteins that, when mutated, lead to human neurological disease. But my interest is in the wild-type versions of these proteins: my research has shown that relatively modest increases or decreases in the levels of at least some ‘normal’ proteins can be pathogenic. This opens up an entirely new avenue to discovering new neurological disease genes, as I showed recently in the identification of patients bearing mutations in Pumilio1 (Cell, 2018).
Main interests:
- Developing RNA therapeutic approaches to neurological diseases
- Establishment and maintenance of RNA homeostasis in the brain
- Protein dosage and neurological disorders
- RNA-binding proteins and non-coding RNA regulatory networks in neurological disorders.
Zoom link (with one-time registration for the whole series) for attending remotely: https://go.epfl.ch/EPFLBioETalks
Instructions for 1st-year Ph.D. students who are under EDBB’s mandatory seminar attendance rule:
IN CASE you cannot attend in-person in the room, please make sure to
About the speaker and his research:
Education & Training:
- MS, 2005 Biological Sciences, University of Palermo, Faculty of Medicine (Italy)
- PhD, 2009 Medical Genetics, Second University of Naples (Italy)
- Fellowship: 2006 University of Milan (Italy)
Research:
My lab’s overall goal is to understand the molecular mechanisms driving neurological diseases, including isolated neuropsychiatric features, in the hope of ultimately devising viable therapies.
Neuroscience made enormous strides during the 1990’s with the advent of molecular genetic techniques that allowed us to identify myriad disease genes and manipulate them in animal models from flies to mice. In the 2000’s, we came to appreciate the importance of epigenetic mechanisms to neurobiology, and now we are on the cusp of a new field that might be called “RNA neurobiology.”
RNA biology may, in fact, have particular importance in the brain, given the extremely dynamic nature of neuronal synapses. The post-synaptic compartment contains polysomes, which indicates that translation is crucial for higher-order brain activity, and protein synthesis has long been thought to be required for memory consolidation. Small wonder, then, that disruption of RNA-binding proteins is associated with wide-ranging syndromes that affect motor control, behavior, and cognition.
My interest in RNA-binding proteins centers on their role in post-transcriptional regulation of proteins that, when mutated, lead to human neurological disease. But my interest is in the wild-type versions of these proteins: my research has shown that relatively modest increases or decreases in the levels of at least some ‘normal’ proteins can be pathogenic. This opens up an entirely new avenue to discovering new neurological disease genes, as I showed recently in the identification of patients bearing mutations in Pumilio1 (Cell, 2018).
Main interests:
- Developing RNA therapeutic approaches to neurological diseases
- Establishment and maintenance of RNA homeostasis in the brain
- Protein dosage and neurological disorders
- RNA-binding proteins and non-coding RNA regulatory networks in neurological disorders.
Zoom link (with one-time registration for the whole series) for attending remotely: https://go.epfl.ch/EPFLBioETalks
Instructions for 1st-year Ph.D. students who are under EDBB’s mandatory seminar attendance rule:
IN CASE you cannot attend in-person in the room, please make sure to
- send D. Reinhard a note well ahead of time (ideally before seminar day), informing that you plan to attend the talk online, and, during seminar:
- be signed in on Zoom with a recognizable user name (not any alias making it difficult or impossible to identify you).
Practical information
- Informed public
- Registration required
Organizer
- Prof. Giovanni D'Angelo, Institute of Bioengineering
Contact
- Institute of Bioengineering (IBI), Dietrich REINHARD