BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//Talks.cam//talks.cam.ac.uk//
X-WR-CALNAME:Talks.cam
BEGIN:VEVENT
SUMMARY:Building a bigger brain: genetic bases for the evolution of the hu
 man neocortex - Prof. Gregory A. Wray
DTSTART:20170424T150000Z
DTEND:20170424T160000Z
UID:TALK67065@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:46487
DESCRIPTION:Among the many morphological changes that took place during hu
 man origins\, an expansion in brain volume is particularly conspicuous. My
  group is using computational and functional genomic approaches to identif
 y candidate loci underlying human-specific features of brain anatomy in co
 njunction with mouse models and induced pluripotent stem cells to validate
  and understand the phenotypic consequences of mutations within those loci
 . We discovered an enhancer containing human lineage-specific mutations th
 at drive elevated expression of the Wnt receptor FZD8 within neural progen
 itor cells during early corticogenesis\, decreasing their cell cycle time\
 , and increasing cell number and overall brain volume. We have also identi
 fied changes in lipid metabolism in adipocytes that result in increased pr
 oduction of diacylglycerides\, which we hypothesize are essential for the 
 greatly expanded surface area of neural- and glial cell membranes in the h
 uman brain. \n\nProf. Gregory A. Wray - Personal Statement\n\nMy overarchi
 ng research goal is to understand the evolution of the genotype-phenotype 
 relationship. My group uses a combination of empirical and computational a
 pproaches to identify functional variants that alter gene expression\, to 
 identify the underlying molecular mechanisms\, and to understand their tra
 it consequences. I have considerable experience using genome-wide analyses
  of population variation and between-species comparisons to identify funct
 ional variants within cis-regulatory regions that affect transcript abunda
 nce and chromatin configuration. My group was the first to carry out DNase
 -seq analyses to identify human-specific evolutionary gains and losses of 
 active regulatory elements and among the first to carry out RNA-seq analys
 es to identify gene expression differences between humans and nonhuman pri
 mates. My group was also among the first to develop and apply methods to t
 est for signatures of positive selection in noncoding DNA throughout the g
 enomes of great apes. Although my experience studying malaria is limited\,
  the experimental and analytical methods from my work on human evolution p
 repare me well for this project.
LOCATION:CRUK CI Room 009/009A
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR