Chromatin Regulation: Insights from New Methods and the Genomics of Human Disease

Event Details

Type

Friday Lecture Series

Speaker(s)

Gerald Crabtree, Ph.D., David Korn Professor of Pathology and Developmental Biology, Stanford University; investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Speaker bio(s)

Recent genomic analysis has shown that mutations in chromatin regulators contribute to about 50 percent of all human malignancies and a substantial fraction of human development diseases. These studies have given thousands of missense alleles that place rigorous limits on possible mechanisms. However, current in vitro approaches are unable to sense these mutations. To overcome these difficulties, Dr. Crabtree is developing approaches that use chemical induced proximity (CIP) and genetically engineered mice to study chromatin regulation in vivo. However, these approaches let the cell form chromatin in all its topological and cell specific complexity and then use CIP to introduce a specific chromatin regulator to a specific genetic locus in a tissue of interest. This approach allows precise kinetic measurements, mathematical modeling, and assays of epigenetic memory of a single chromatin regulator executing its function within a faithful chromatin environment. Dr. Crabtree will discuss the applications of this approach to understanding the role of the neuron-specific nBAF complex in autism and BAF complexes in cancer.

Dr. Gerald Crabtree received his M.D. from Temple University Medical School in 1972 and completed his clinical training at Medical University of South Carolina and Dartmouth Medical School. Dr. Crabtree became an associate professor of pathology at Stanford University School of Medicine in 1985, where he is currently the David Korn Professor of Pathology and professor of developmental biology; he has been a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator since 1987. He is known for defining the Ca²⁺-calcineurin-NFAT signaling pathway, pioneering the development of synthetic ligands for regulation of biologic processes, and discovering chromatin regulatory mechanisms involved in cancer and brain development. Recent honors include election to the American Association for the Advancement of Science and receiving the Senator Jacob Javits Neuroscience Investigator Award. A member of the National Academy of Sciences, Dr. Crabtree is a founder of Ariad Pharmaceuticals, Amplyx Pharmaceuticals, and Foghorn Therapeutics.

Open to

Public

Host

Robert Roeder, 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

Readings

http://librarynews.rockefeller.edu/?p=5119