Free Hybrid Lecture
Location: Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
Speakers:
Daniel Faccini, PhD Candidate, Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University
Neil S. Greenspan, Professor Emeritus of Pathology, Case Western Reserve University; a Senior Editor, Pathogens and Immunity
Julius Tabin, PhD Candidate, Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University
What exactly is a gene? What can genes really tell us about the evolution of life and human beings? These are some of the questions behind Whose Genes?–a project funded by the Harvard President’s Building Bridges Fund. Drawing on interviews with Harvard faculty and questions gathered from the broader community, the project explores both shared ground and points of debate in contemporary genetics, bringing together diverse perspectives on one of biology’s most enduring and contested questions: How do genes shape organisms, identities, and evolution? Join us for a public conversation around this question. Audience members are invited to complete this short anonymous survey in advance and to bring their own questions about evolution, inheritance, and the limits of genetic explanations.
Advance registration is recommended.
Free parking is available at the 52 Oxford Street Garage starting at 5 pm.
Presented by the Harvard Museum of Natural History, one of the Harvard Museums of Science & Culture, with support from the Harvard President’s Building Bridges Fund, and the Herman and Joan Suit Lecture Fund.
About the Speakers
Daniel Faccini is a Ph.D student in the Friedman Lab of the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University. Fascinated with the morphological evolution of plants, he studies plants from an organismal perspective, integrating developmental, morphological, biogeographical, and ecological patterns to understand their extraordinary diversity. His current research focuses on the evolution of a diverse plant genus in the Canary Islands.
Neil S. Greenspan is an immunologist and clinical pathologist. After studying biochemical sciences at Harvard University, he received an MD and PhD (in immunology) from the University of Pennsylvania and pursued post-graduate training in clinical pathology and molecular immunology at Barnes Hospital and Washington University. After joining the Case Western Reserve University (Case) School of Medicine faculty in 1986, Greenspan studied immunity to bacterial pathogens along with vaccine design, probed connections between antibody structure and function, investigated autoimmunity in a mouse model of lupus, explored conceptual implications of evolution for understanding immunology and related fields, and directed the Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics Laboratory of what is now University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center for about 38 years. He also taught immunology and related fields to medical students, graduate students, undergraduates (less frequently), pathology residents, and transplant-related clinical fellows. He has published over 100 articles listed on PubMed, over 100 academically oriented commentaries, and about 25 opinion pieces on a variety of topics for broader audiences. He is a senior editor of Pathogens and Immunity (P&I). In 2021, he was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Julius Tabin is a PhD student in the Elya Lab of the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University. He is broadly interested in behavioral genetics. In the past, he has studied a variety of organisms, including cavefish, zebrafish, catsharks, gars, skates, big cats, and deer mice. He is currently conducting research on “zombie flies.” When infected with the fungus Entomophthora muscae, these flies are compelled to climb to high locations before dying. Tabin works on understanding the molecular and mechanistic basis of this parasite-induced phenomenon.