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John D. Wiley Seminar Series

Date: May 11, 2012

Time: Noon to 1:00 pm

Title: "Why and when must the brain have MeCP2?"

Speaker: Nurit Ballas, PhD
Research Associate Professor
Department of Biochemistry and Cell Biology
Stony Brook University

About the Talk: Mutations in the methyl-CpG binding protein 2 (MeCP2) cause a wide range of neuropsychiatric disorders, most commonly, Rett Syndrome (RTT), a severe autism spectrum disorder that strikes about one in 10,000 live female births. Although MeCP2 is expressed globally, loss-of-function of MeCP2 manifests primarily as deficits in the central nervous system. Because mutations in the MECP2 gene emerge in the germline, with onset of neurological symptoms occurring in early childhood, the role of MeCP2 has been associated with brain maturation. To analyze whether MeCP2 is required only during certain developmental window, we examined and compared the effects of direct loss of MeCP2 in mice at two different developmental stages, late juvenile and adult. We found that MeCP2 is equally critical for maintaining normal brain anatomy and functional neuronal networks during late stages of brain maturation (juvenile) and in the mature brain (adult), suggesting that the highly dynamic and complex neuronal circuitry of the mature brain requires MeCP2 throughout life. Cellular and molecular mechanisms that underlie the deterioration of the mature brain upon the loss of MeCP2 will be discussed.

About the Speaker: Dr. Nurit Ballas is a Research Associate Professor at the Department of Biochemistry and Cell Biology in Stony Brook University. She received her Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1988, and completed postdoctoral training at UC Berkeley as a plant molecular biologist specializing in hormonal regulation of gene expression. In 1998 Dr. Ballas has decided to switch to neuroscience, although her main interest remains regulation of gene expression. Dr. Ballas received an NIH reentry into the Biomedical Sciences Grant and joined Dr. Gail Mandel's lab at Stony Brook University. In 2007 Dr. Ballas established her own lab at the Department of Biochemistry and Cell Biology.

Where: John D. Wiley Conference Center, Room T216, Second Floor, North Tower

For Further Information: Contact Teresa Palumbo at 263-5837 or palumbo@waisman.wisc.edu

This Seminar Series is partially funded by the John D. Wiley Conference Center Fund, the Friends of the Waisman Center and NIH grant P30 HD003352.