Northwestern Events Calendar

Oct
26
2015

From GWAS to Gene for Conserved Drug Responses: Small RNAs and Topoisomerases

When: Monday, October 26, 2015
4:00 PM - 5:00 PM CT

Where: Ward Building, 5-230, 303 E. Chicago Avenue, Chicago, IL 60611 map it

Audience: Faculty/Staff - Student - Public - Post Docs/Docs - Graduate Students

Contact: Liz Barrera  

Group: Department of Pharmacology Seminars

Category: Lectures & Meetings

Description:

The Department of Pharmacology will be presenting a seminar from Northwestern's Dr. Erik C. Andersen, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Molecular Biosciences.

The following is an overview of this seminar, as described by Dr. Andersen:

We differ in our susceptibilities to cancer, diabetes, and other common diseases because of each individual’s unique genetic makeup and the effects of their particular environment. The greatest challenge in genetics today is to read an individual’s genome and make predictions about disease and drug susceptibilities. My laboratory uses quantitative and molecular genetics in nematode roundworms, like Caenorhabditis elegans, to identify the genes that vary within populations to cause differences in these traits. Nematodes are a powerful experimental platform for many reasons, including a high-level of conservation with humans, ease of manipulation, a powerful genetic and genomic toolkit, a large wild strain collection that contains variation comparable to that of humans, and the ability to connect gene function to tissues and cells in an intact organism. In addition to genetics, we use new sequencing technologies, high-throughput phenotyping assays, and other genomic tools to determine the molecular mechanisms for how genetic variation causes phenotypic differences. I will discuss our progress unraveling natural variation in responses to topoisomerase II poisons used to treat human cancers and anthelmintic compounds used to treat parasitic nematode infections.

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