Genetic Mysteries: how do we distinguish new discovery from bad science?

Speaker: Dr. Stanley Prusiner, MD
Affliation: Neuroscience, University of California, San Franciso
Title of Seminar: "Prion Biology and Diseases"
Date: Monday, April 2, 2007
Location: 1210 LeBaron Hall
Time: 4:15 p.m.
Website of Speaker
Research: Infectious proteins called prions that cause neurodegenerative diseases
ISU Contact: Tom Peterson, Genetics, Development and Cell Biology

Speaker: Susan Lolle, Professor
Affliation: Department of Biology, University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada
Title of Seminar: "Paradox of Gene Restoration: Is the Proof in the Pollen?"
Date: Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Location: 1414 Molecular Biology
Time: 4:10 p.m.
Refreshments: 3:45 p.m. in the Atrium of the Molecular Biology Building
Website of Speaker
Research: "Genome-wide non-Mendelian inheritance of extra-genomic information in Arabidopsis." See Bob Pruitt, Purdue
ISU Contact: Drena Dobbs, Genetics, Development and Cell Biology

Speaker: Jiming Jiang, Professor
Affliation: Horticulture, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Title of Seminar: "Centromere: supposed to be silent, makes lots of noise"
Date: Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Location: 1414 Molecular Biology
Time: 4:10 p.m.
Refreshments: 3:45 p.m. in the Atrium of the Molecular Biology Building
Website of Speaker
Research: "Although the functions of centromeres are conserved in all eukaryotes, the primary DNA sequence that underlies centromeres has no discernable conservation among model eukaryotes, which has been one of the most intriguing enigmas in biology."
ISU Contact: Tom Peterson, Genetics, Development and Cell Biology

Speaker: Amar Klar, Head, Developmental Genetics Section
Affliation: Gene Regulation and Chromosome Biology Laboratory, National Cancer Institute, Frederick, MD
Title of Seminar: "Asymmetric cell division through selective chromatid segregation as a mechanism for human left versus right hand-use preference, brain laterality, psychosis traits and vertebrates visceral laterality development."
Date: Monday, April 23, 2007
Location: 1414 Molecular Biology
Time: 4:10 p.m.
Refreshments: 3:45 p.m. in the Atrium of the Molecular Biology Building
Website of Speaker
Research: "The genetics of left-handedness and schizophrenia."
ISU Contact: Dan Voytas, Genetics, Development and Cell Biology

Sponsors: Interdepartmental Genetics; Genetics, Department of Genetics, Development and Cell Biology; Plant Sciences Institutue; F. Wendell Miller Lectures; Center for Integrated Animal Genomics; ISU Graduate College; Center for Plant Genomics; Iowa Center for Advanced Neurotoxicology; Department of Ecology, Evolution and Organismal Biology