We hope you will join us on October 11, 2024 for a Distinguished Scientist Lecture presented by Steven McCarroll, PhD. Dr. McCarroll is the Dorothy and Milton Flier Professor of Biomedical Science and Genetics in the Harvard Medical School Department of Genetics and Director of Genomic Neurobiology for the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research, the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard.
Scientists in the McCarroll Lab are working to recognize the biology that underlies human brain health and illness, and the ways in which human genes, inherited genetic variation, and somatic mutations conspire to shape this biology. The biological basis for most brain disorders is unknown today: most are understood mainly in terms of collections of symptoms, neuropathological observations – such as cortical thinning, protein aggregates, or death of a specific kind of cell – and human-genetic associations. Dr. McCarroll's research aims to increase our understanding of these disorders as biological entities in order to develop new and innovative ways to monitor and treat them. The lab is particularly focused on DNA-repeat disorders and the disruptions of mental health commonly known as “psychiatric disorders”, especially schizophrenia.
To better appreciate and understand the biological changes underlying human brain disorders, Dr. McCarroll's lab developed experimental approaches for profiling gene expression in thousands of individual cells or nuclei at once, and machine-learning approaches for making sense of the resulting high-volume data. The application of these approaches to analyzing human brain tissue from hundreds of persons with psychiatric disorders and controls, contributed post mortem at the end of life, is teaching us surprising things about how the brain works in general, and about what cellular and molecular systems are potentially impaired in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Perhaps most surprising, the McCarroll Lab found evidence that neurons and glial cells (especially astrocytes) closely coordinate their gene expression in a larger cellular-molecular system called SNAP (the Synaptic Neuron-Astrocyte Program). SNAP is substantially impaired in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, and this impairment appears to explain the vast majority of the gene-expression changes that are observed in the prefrontal cortex in these disorders.
Join us in person in the UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital Auditorium or attend virtually using the following Zoom information:
Zoom Link: https://pitt.zoom.us/j/99044256313
Passcode: 044645
For More Information. Please contact Shardai Key-Ward at keysj4@upmc.edu.
CONTINUING EDUCATION CREDITS. The entirety of this program will be a lecture by the speaker(s). All individuals able to control the content of this educational activity are required to disclose all relevant financial relationships with any proprietary entity producing, marketing, re-selling, or distributing health care goods or services, used on, or consumed by, patients. Registration is not required for this event. This event is free and there will be no refunds. The University of Pittsburgh is an affirmative action, equal opportunity institution. The University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education to provide continuing medical education for physicians. The University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine designates this educational activity for a maximum of 1.5 AMA PRA Category 1 CreditsTM. Each physician should only claim credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity. Other health care professionals are awarded .15 continuing education units (CEUs), which are equal to 1.5 contact hours. In accordance with Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education requirements on disclosure, information about relationships of presenters with commercial interests (if any) will be included in materials which will be distributed at the time of the conference. WPH is approved by the American Psychological Association to offer continuing education for psychologists. WPH maintains responsibility for this program and its contents. This program is being offered for 1.5 continuing education credits. The indicated number of clock hours of continuing education is provided through UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital’s Office of Educational Resources and Planning, a PA-approved provider of social work continuing education in accordance with all the applicable educational and professional standards of the Pennsylvania State Board of Social Workers, Marriage and Family Therapist. These clock hours satisfy requirements for LSW/LCSW, LPC and LMFT renewal. For more information, call (412) 204-9085.
