The rockefeller university

Event Details

Type

Friday Lecture Series

Speaker(s)

Michael Levine, Ph.D., Anthony B. Evnin Professor, department of molecular biology, director, Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics, Princeton University

Speaker bio(s)

Transcriptional enhancers are short segments of genomic DNA that can work over long distances to switch genes on and off in response to a variety of external and intrinsic signals. The human genome is thought to contain on the order of 400,000 to one million enhancers, at least 10–20 enhancers per gene. There is emerging evidence that sequence polymorphisms in enhancer DNAs are a major source for population variation and predilection to disease. Dr. Levine will discuss several basic properties of enhancer DNAs based on the analysis of living Drosophila embryos and high-throughput transgenesis of Ciona embryos. These studies suggest that enhancers control the frequency of transcriptional bursts and that developmental enhancers contain suboptimal organization and affinities of transcription factor (TF) binding sites.

 

Dr. Levine's laboratory has studied the mechanisms responsible for switching genes on and off in the early Drosophila embryo for over 30 years. These studies led to the characterization of the eve stripe 2 enhancer, short-range repression, and the regulation of long-range enhancer–promoter interactions. For the past 10 years, his laboratory has also examined cellular morphogenesis in the tadpole of the simple chordate, the sea squirt Ciona intestinalis. Most of these studies have focused on the evolutionary origins of key vertebrate innovations such as the multi-chambered heart, neural crest, and cranial placodes. Dr. Levine's laboratory also uses electroporation-mediated transgenesis of Ciona embryos to conduct high-throughput studies of developmental enhancers that mediate tissue-specific patterns of gene expression.

 

Dr. Levine received his B.A. in genetics from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1976 and his Ph.D. in biophysics and biochemistry from Yale University in 1981. He conducted postdoctoral research at the University of Basel, where he was a co-discoverer of the homeobox. From 1996 to 2015, Dr. Levine was professor of genetics at UC Berkeley, where he also served as chairman of the Chancellor's Advisory Council for Biology, and he was head of the division of genetics, genomics and development from 2007 to 2011. From 2001 to 2002, he was associate director of the Functional Genomics Program at the Joint Genome Institute. He joined Princeton University in 2015, where he is director of the Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics and Anthony B. Evnin Professor of molecular biology.

 

Dr. Levine is the recipient of several honors, including a Jane Coffin Childs Postdoctoral Fellowship in 1982; a Searle Scholars Fellowship and an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship, both in 1985; the National Academy of Sciences Award in Molecular Biology in 1996; the Wilbur Cross Medal from Yale University in 2009; and the Edwin G. Conklin Medal from the Society for Developmental Biology in 2015. Dr. Levine is a member of both the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences.

Open to

Public

Host

Robert Roeder, Ph.D.

Reception

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

Contact

Linda Hanssler

Phone

(212) 327-7714

Sponsor

Linda Hanssler
(212) 327-7714
lhanssler@rockefeller.edu

Readings

http://librarynews.rockefeller.edu/?p=4136