Faculty Candidate Seminar: Richard She
Candidate for Assistant Professor, Molecular Biology & Genetics
Richard She, PhD Postdoctoral fellow, Whitehead Institute
Date: Monday, May 13th , 2024 1:00 p.m.
Location: Red Seminar Room, Donnelly CCBR
Decoding the genetic landscape of human brain expansion
The 3-fold expansion of the cerebral cortex is one of the defining features of human evolution. This extraordinary transformation occurred over a remarkably short evolutionary time span of ~7 million years. However, the causal mechanisms and pathways that govern size control of the developing brain have not yet been systematically investigated. To discover the genes responsible for this process, my lab will build a functional genomics platform to observe the effects of genetic perturbations on neurodevelopment. We will perform genetic screens in neuronal progenitor cells from humans and great apes. These experiments will identify the key pathways and genes that determine whether neural progenitor cells undergo proliferation or differentiation – a pivotal decision point that ultimately dictates the expansion of the brain.