The rockefeller university

Event Details

Type

Friday Lecture Series

Speaker(s)

Richard Lifton, M.D., Ph.D., president-elect, The Rockefeller University; Sterling Professor of Genetics and professor of medicine (nephrology), chair, department of genetics, Yale University; investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Speaker bio(s)

Despite great effort, the mechanisms underlying many diseases remain unknown, thwarting development of robust approaches to prevention and treatment. In this setting, unbiased genetic approaches in humans have the ability to establish causal relationships between rare genotypes and traits, identifying specific genes and pathways that may be manipulated for health benefit. Dr. Lifton’s laboratory has used genetic approaches to systematically identify mutations causing extreme forms of common diseases. Over the last several years, advances in next-generation DNA sequencing has afforded the opportunity to search for rare mutations with large effect beyond the usual bounds of Mendelian genetics. Dr. Lifton’s laboratory has explored the contributions of de novo mutations, mutations with large effect but incomplete penetrance, multi-locus inheritance, and somatic mutations to a wide range of diseases, identifying several hundred new genes in which mutations impart large effect on disease risk. The results suggest that mutation of the vast majority of human genes will have large phenotypic effect, alone or in combination with specific environmental or genetic interactors. These findings provide a path toward a comprehensive understanding of the consequence of mutation of all human genes, which will illuminate human biology and define opportunities for advancing human health.

A physician-scientist who holds M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from Stanford University, Dr. Lifton has pioneered the use of genetics and genomics to understand fundamental mechanisms underlying human diseases, including cardiovascular disease, neoplasia, kidney disease, and osteoporosis. He is especially known for research on hypertension and salt intake, work that has informed public health efforts and therapeutic strategies used worldwide.

 

Dr. Lifton is a graduate of Dartmouth College. He did his medical residency at Brigham and Women's College, and has been on the faculty of Harvard Medical School and Yale University. He joined Yale in 1993 as assistant professor of internal medicine and genetics, and he is currently chair of Yale’s department of genetics and executive director of the Yale Center for Genome Analysis.

 

A 2014 Breakthrough Prize winner and a 2008 recipient of the Wiley Prize for Biomedical Sciences, Dr. Lifton has received numerous other scientific and medical honors, including awards from the American Heart Association, the American Society of Nephrology, and the American Society of Hypertension. He has been a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator since 1994 and is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was the co-chair of the planning committee for President Obama's Precision Medicine Initiative in 2015.

Open to

Public

Reception

Refreshments, 3:15 p.m. - 3:45 p.m., Abby Lounge

Contact

Jill Benz

Phone

(212) 327-7244

Sponsor

Jill Benz
(212) 327-7244
benzj@rockefeller.edu

Readings

http://librarynews.rockefeller.edu/?p=4116