Genes and Disease: Uncovering the Genes Underlying Disease States in the Age of Genome Sequencing and Gene Editing

Live Zoom Class

1. Why We Sleep: Clues from Sleepless Fish - Dr. Keene received his Ph.D. in the laboratory of Dr. Scott Waddell at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. He then was a postdoctoral fellow with Dr. Barry Dixon at the Institute for Molecular Pathology in Vienna and then with Dr. Justin Blau at New York University. He is now an Associate Professor at Florida Atlantic University examining sleep-metabolism interactions in the fruit fly and the evolution of sleep in the cavefish.
2. When Metabolism goes Wrong: Diabetes and Obesity - Dr. Rohner received his Ph.D in the laboratory of Nobel Laureate Dr. Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard before moving to Harvard Medical School to work with Dr. Cliff Tabin on the genetic basis of cavefish. Dr. Rohner is now an Assistant Professor at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research in Kansas City where he uses the cavefish model system to study an important problem: How can animals adapt to periods of food overabundance and to periods when food is scarce or even entirely absent for long periods of time? His research has implications for a variety of different metabolic dysfunctions and activities such as obesity, diabetes and intermittent fasting.
3. What Genes Tell Us: Humans Health and Man’s Best Friend - Dr. McGaugh received her Ph.D. in Genetics from Iowa State University and conducted postdoctoral work at Duke University and Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. She is an expert evolutionary biologist, and her work seeks to use the variation in naturally occurring organisms to understand human disease. She’s worked on many different types of organisms, from fruit flies and fish to snakes and turtles. Dr. McGaugh has co-authored more than 40 scientific manuscripts and is an Associate Professor at the University of Minnesota.
4. Who Changes Genes? Gene Editing and Human Health - Dr. Kowalko received her Ph. D. in at Harvard University in genetics before conducting postdoctoral work in the field of gene editing in non-model species at Iowa State University. Dr. Kowalko is now an Assistant Professor at Florida Atlantic University studying the genetic architecture underlying behavioral traits using the blind Mexican cavefish.