THE LOUIS LEVINE-GABRIELLA DE BEER LECTURE IN GENETICS

with

Dr. Robert B.Darnell

Heilbrunn Professor and Senior Physician,The Rockefeller University
Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Founding Director and CEO Emeritus,New York Genome Center

Presents
The Basic Excitement Underlying Clinical Genomic

DR. ROBERT B. DARNELL

Dr. Robert B. Darnell has been a Professor at the Rockefeller University since 1992 where he is the Heilbrunn Professor of Cancer Biology, Senior Physician at the Rockefeller  Hospital,  and an Adjunct Attending Neuro-Oncologist at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

Dr. Darnell is a world expert on the paraneoplastic neurological degenerations (PNDs), rare diseases manifest by tumor immunity and autoimmunity.  Studies of their disease pathophysiology led to insights into tumor immunity and to the development of a new platform technology, CLIP, now the gold standard method to study  RNA regulation in vivo.  This led to his discovery that humans have unique systems for regulating RNA metabolism, and then make breakthrough contributions to our understanding of neurologic diseases, including Fragile-X intellectual disability and autism. These accomplishments led to Dr. Darnell’s appointment as a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, a position he has held since 2002, and to his appointment as Founding Director and CEO emeritus of the New York Genome Center.

Dr. Darnell serves as a member of several advisory boards and panels.  He is a Member of both the National Academies of Sciences and of Medicine, and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.  His work has been recognized by numerous rewards, including the Derek Denny-Brown Neurological Scholar Award, the Burroughs Wellcome Clinical Science Award in Translational Research, an NIH Outstanding Investigator Award, and the NIH Directors Transformative Research Award.

THE LOUIS LEVINE-GABRIELLA DE BEER LECTURE IN GENETICS

The Louis Levine-Gabriella de Beer Lecture in Genetics was established by Gabriella de Beer in memory of her husband, Professor Louis Levine. A graduate of the College, he earned his Ph.D. in population genetics under the late great evolutionary geneticist Theodosius Dobzhansky at Columbia University. Professor Levine’s research centered on population studies of Drosophila and behavior genetics of mice. Human genetics and forensic genetics were among other areas to which he was devoted. Professor Levine taught in the Department of Biology and in the Sophie Davis School of Biomedical Education, participated in bi-national research studies in Mexico, was Visiting Professor at the Technion (the Israel Institute of Technology) in Israel, and in later years served as a consultant and expert witness in criminal cases involving DNA evidence.

Important Information:
This event will be held in-person with limited capacity. All guests attending the lecture will need to show their vaccination cards or Excelsior Pass upon arrival. Unvaccinated guests will need to get a test within 72 hours prior to the event and show their negative test results before being admitted to the lecture. Masks are required. All attendees will be seated six feet apart from one another, as we follow Covid-19 social distancing guidelines.