The rockefeller university

Event Details

Type

Friday Lecture Series

Speaker(s)

Didier Trono, M.D., Ph.D., professor and head, Laboratory of Virology and Genetics, cole Polytechnique Fdrale de Lausanne; co-director, Lemanic Center for Personalized Health

Speaker bio(s)

Transposable elements (TEs) likely account for at least two-thirds of the human genome, and are subjected to epigenetic control mechanisms from the earliest stages of embryonic development. An important component of this process is the sequence-specific recognition of TEs by KRAB-containing zinc finger proteins (KRAB-ZFPs), a large family of transcription factors that act by recruiting inducers of heterochromatin formation and DNA methylation. KRAB-ZFPs and their cofactor KAP1/TRIM28 exert a marked influence on the transcription dynamics of embryonic stem cells via their docking of repressor complexes at TE-contained regulatory sequences. It is generally held that, beyond this early embryonic period, TEs become permanently silenced, and that the evolutionary selection of KRAB-ZFPs and other TE controllers is the result of a simple evolutionary arms race between the host and these genetic invaders. Dr. Trono will discuss recent evidence that invalidates this dual assumption, and instead suggests that KRAB-ZFPs are the instruments of a massive enterprise of TE domestication, whereby transposon-based regulatory sequences and their cellular ligands establish species-specific transcription regulation networks that influence multiple aspects of human biology.

 

Dr. Trono’s research has long gravitated around interactions between viruses and their hosts and the development of tools for gene therapy. This led him to epigenetics, and to explore the impact of transposable elements and their controllers on transcriptional networks governing human biology.

 

Dr. Trono received his M.D. from the University of Geneva in 1982. He completed his clinical training in pathology, internal medicine, and infectious diseases in Geneva and at Massachusetts General Hospital before performing postdoctoral work with Dr. David Baltimore at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research. In 1990, he moved to the Salk Institute for Biological Studies to launch a center for AIDS research. From 1997 to 2004, he was at the University of Geneva as professor and then head of the department of genetics and microbiology. He then joined the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) as dean of its newly launched School of Life Sciences, a position he held for eight years. He now leads the Health 2030 Initiative, a joint venture of the EPFL, the Universities of Geneva, Bern, and Lausanne, and their affiliated hospitals to promote the advent of personalized health in Switzerland. Dr. Trono is the recipient of numerous awards for his work, including the Pew Scholar for Biomedical Sciences Award, the MERIT Award from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and the Leenaards Prize. He is a member of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO).

Open to

Public

Host

Charles Rice, Ph.D.

Reception

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

Contact

Justin Sloboda

Phone

(212) 327-7785

Sponsor

Justin Sloboda
(212) 327-7785
jsloboda@rockefeller.edu