The 16th Annual James V. Neel Lecture in Human Genetics will take place on Tuesday, May 24, 2016 at 3:00 p.m., in the Biomedical Research Building, Kahn Auditorium, corner of Huron Ave and Zina Pitcher Pl., Ann Arbor. The Lecture will feature Dr. Andrew Clark, Cornell University Professor of Molecular Biology and Genetics and Associate Director for the Cornell Center for Comparative and Population Genomics.
Dr. Clark is the Jacob Gould Schurman Professor of Population Genetics and the Nancy and Peter Meinig Family Investigator. He is a member of the Cornell University graduate programs in Genetics, Genomics and Development, Computation Biology, and Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. In May of 2012, Dr. Clark was elected to the National Academy of Science and was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1994. He has served as President of the Society of Molecular Biology and Evolution, and is on the Council of the Genetics Society of America.
Dr. Clark’s research focuses on the genetic basis of adaptive variation in natural populations, with emphasis on quantitative modeling of phenotypes as networks of interacting genes. Dr. Clark has projects centered on the genetic basis for complex traits, especially in cases where there is a well understood gene regulatory network underlying the trait. Genetic perturbations, in the form of natural variation, as well as environmental perturbations lend specificity to inferences of models connecting genotype to phenotype. Dr. Clark’s human population work is focused on cardiovascular disease risk, on population genetic applications of genome-wide SNP data, and on the phenomenon of genomic imprinting. His lab is also engaged in statistical inference of association using dense SNP genotyping arrays. Dr. Clark maintains a Drosophila laboratory, where students are studying the genetic and evolutionary basis for variation in innate immune efficacy, genetic variation in sperm competition, regulation of fat storage, and evolution of the Y chromosome. Most recently he has engaged in extensive RNA-seq analysis of reciprocal crosses of mice, horse and donkey, chickens, opossum, wasps and bees for inference of genomic imprinting and sex chromosome inactivation.
The lecture honors James Van Gundia Neel, M.D. (1915-2000), a pioneer in developing human genetics research and who established the first Department of Human Genetics in 1956 at the University of Michigan, serving as its Chair for over 25 years. He received the Lasker Award for establishing the genetic inheritance of thalassemia and sickle cell anemia, and was awarded the United States National Medal of Science from President Gerald R. Ford in 1974. Dr. Neel is well known for assessing the effects of radiation on survivors of the atomic bombings in Japan, studying Amerindian populations, and conceptualizing the “thrifty gene” hypothesis. Following the lecture, a poster session and reception will be held in the meeting rooms adjacent to the auditorium.
For more information, contact the Department of Human Genetics, 734-647-3149.
https://medicine.umich.edu/dept/human-genetics/james-v-neel-lectureship
