QBI Neuroscience Seminar: Somatic L1 mosaicism: 'dark matter' in mammalian genetics

Event Details

Date:

Wednesday, 15 February 2017

Time:

11:00 am - 12:00 pm

Room:

QBI Level 7 Auditorium

UQ Location:

Queensland Brain Institute (St Lucia)

URL:

http://www.qbi.uq.edu.au/neuroscience-seminars

Event category(s):

Full Description:: Professor Geoff Faulkner
Queensland Brain Institute, and Mater Research Institute, University of Queensland

Title: Somatic L1 mosaicism: 'dark matter' in mammalian genetics

Abstract: Professor Geoff Faulkner's core research seeks to understand the role of LINE-1 (L1) retrotransposons, a type of “mobile DNA”, in causing genetic mosaicism in stem cells and neurons. This L1 variation may be a fundamental aspect of healthy brain function, and appears to change in neurological diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease, Rett syndrome and schizophrenia. In this talk, he will discuss new approaches to identify L1 retrotransposon insertions in individual mammalian cells, as well as recent results suggesting these L1 variants occur early in neurodevelopment, generating common somatic genome mosaicism in the mammalian brain.