The rockefeller university

Event Details

Type

Friday Lecture Series

Speaker(s)

Susan L. Ackerman, Ph.D., professor, The Jackson Laboratory; investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Speaker bio(s)

The underlying molecular causes of the majority of neurological disorders remain largely unknown. To identify these mechanisms, particularly those underlying CNS development and neurodegeneration, Dr. Ackerman’s lab uses a forward genetic approach in mice. Importantly, this phenotype-driven approach allows the identification, without a priori assumptions, of molecules critical to these processes. Recently, Dr. Ackerman’s lab has identified mutations in genes encoding functional RNAs involved in pre-mRNA splicing and translation that cause progressive neurodegeneration in the adult brain. Surprisingly, these mutations reside in genes that are found in multiple copies in the mammalian genome. These studies suggest that multigenic functional RNAs are not genetically redundant, with individual copies of these genes having important roles in nervous system function.

 

Dr. Ackerman received her Ph.D. in 1987 in biology from the University of California, Los Angeles, and did postdoctoral research at the University of Illinois School of Medicine and the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. She was also a postdoctoral fellow with The Wistar Institute in Philadelphia. Dr. Ackerman joined The Jackson Laboratory in 1993 and became full professor in 2007. She has been a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator since 2005 and is also an adjunct professor at University of Maine, Orono, and Tufts University School of Medicine. Additionally, Dr. Ackerman is an associate geneticist at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston.

 

Open to

Public

Reception

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

Contact

Alena Powell

Phone

(212) 327-7745

Sponsor

Alena Powell
(212) 327-7745
apowell@rockefeller.edu

Readings

http://librarynews.rockefeller.edu/?p=3448