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VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//Memento EPFL//
BEGIN:VEVENT
SUMMARY:EPFL BioE Talks SERIES  "From Genes to Proteins: A New Lens for Un
 derstanding Neurological Disease"
DTSTART:20241118T121500
DTEND:20241118T131500
DTSTAMP:20260506T111938Z
UID:182dda7b2750638a846ae83b5618c515bb6635b97864034aeab9bbf7
CATEGORIES:Conferences - Seminars
DESCRIPTION:Prof. Vincenzo A. Gennarino\, Columbia University Irving Medic
 al Center\, New York City\, NY (US)\nWEEKLY EPFL BIOE TALKS SERIES (sandwi
 ches provided)\n\nAbout the speaker and his research:\n\nEducation & Train
 ing:\n- MS\, 2005 Biological Sciences\, University of Palermo\, Faculty of
  Medicine (Italy)\n- PhD\, 2009 Medical Genetics\, Second University of Na
 ples (Italy)\n- Fellowship: 2006 University of Milan (Italy)\n\n\nResearch
 :\n\nMy lab’s overall goal is to understand the molecular mechanisms dri
 ving neurological diseases\, including isolated neuropsychiatric features\
 , in the hope of ultimately devising viable therapies.\nNeuroscience 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 ap
 preciate the importance of epigenetic mechanisms to neurobiology\, and now
  we are on the cusp of a new field that might be called “RNA neurobiolog
 y.”\nRNA biology may\, in fact\, have particular importance in the brain
 \, given the extremely dynamic nature of neuronal synapses. The post-synap
 tic compartment contains polysomes\, which indicates that translation is c
 rucial for higher-order brain activity\, and protein synthesis has long be
 en thought to be required for memory consolidation. Small wonder\, then\, 
 that disruption of RNA-binding proteins is associated with wide-ranging sy
 ndromes that affect motor control\, behavior\, and cognition.\nMy interest
  in RNA-binding proteins centers on their role in post-transcriptional reg
 ulation of proteins that\, when mutated\, lead to human neurological disea
 se. But my interest is in the wild-type versions of these proteins: my res
 earch has shown that relatively modest increases or decreases in the level
 s 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 P
 umilio1 (Cell\, 2018).\n\nMain interests:\n- Developing RNA therapeutic ap
 proaches to neurological diseases\n- Establishment and maintenance of RNA 
 homeostasis in the brain\n- Protein dosage and neurological disorders\n- R
 NA-binding proteins and non-coding RNA regulatory networks in neurological
  disorders.\n\n\nZoom link (with one-time registration for the whole serie
 s) for attending remotely: https://go.epfl.ch/EPFLBioETalks\n\n\nInstructi
 ons for 1st-year Ph.D. students who are under EDBB’s mandatory seminar a
 ttendance rule:\nIN CASE you cannot attend in-person in the room\, please 
 make sure to\n\n	send D. Reinhard a note well ahead of time (ideally befor
 e seminar day)\, informing that you plan to attend the talk online\, and\,
  during seminar:\n	be signed in on Zoom with a recognizable user name (not
  any alias making it difficult or impossible to identify you).\n\nStudents
  attending the seminar in-person should collect a confirmation signature a
 fter the talk - please print your own signature sheet beforehand (71 kB pd
 f available for download here). IMPORTANTLY: hang on to this sheet as no s
 ignature record is being kept by anyone else!
LOCATION:SV 1717 https://plan.epfl.ch/?room==SV%201717 https://go.epfl.ch/
 EPFLBioETalks
STATUS:CONFIRMED
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