Expert to speak on the genetic determinants of autism and other common heritable disorders

November 4, 2005

(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) — The UC Davis M.I.N.D. Institute will host T. Conrad Gilliam, the Mitchell professor and chair of human genetics at the University of Chicago, on Wednesday, November 9, at the UC Davis M.I.N.D. Institute auditorium, 2825 50th St., Sacramento, as the second speaker in its fourth annual Distinguished Lecturer Series.

Gilliam will present two lectures: a technical lecture at 4 p.m. and a community-interest lecture at 6 p.m. During his technical presentation, he will discuss new experimental and computational strategies for predicting meaningful interactions among autism candidate genes and ultimately identifying the genetic basis of this disorder. During his community-interest lecture, he will present results from an ongoing collaborative study designed to identify the genetic determinants of common heritable disorders like autism. Both presentations are free and open to the public; no reservations are needed. 

Gilliam is internationally recognized for his research on the genetic determinants of common heritable disorders, especially neuropsychiatric disorders like autism, anxiety disorder, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. As the former director of the Columbia University Genome Center, Gilliam has led international studies to map disease loci for all three forms of spinal muscular atrophy and an X-linked form of parkinsonism and to identify and characterize disease genes for Wilson disease, two forms of epilepsy and retinitis pigmentosa. A member of the editorial boards of Psychiatric Genetics and Neuopsychiatric Genetics, Gilliam also is a member of the National Institutes of Health mammalian genetics study section and chair of the National Institute of Mental Health genetics steering committee.

Gilliam is the second of nine distinguished lecturers in the M.I.N.D. Institute's 2005-2006 series. Upcoming speakers are Eric Fombonne, McGill University (Dec. 14); Margaret Bauman, Boston University and Massachusetts General Hospital (Jan. 11); Uta Frith, University College London (Feb. 8); Sally and Bennett Shaywitz, Yale University (Mar. 8, visit cosponsored by the UC Davis School of Education); Jan Buitelaar, University Medical Center St. Radboud, Netherlands (Apr. 12); Charles Nelson, Harvard University (May 10); and Gary Mesibov, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (June 14).

The Distinguished Lecturer Series is funded in part by the SBC Foundation. For more information about this and future lectures, please visit the M.I.N.D. Institute Web site at www.mindinstitute.org or call (916) 703-0280. 

The UC Davis M.I.N.D. (Medical Investigation of Neurodevelopmental Disorders) Institute is a unique collaborative center for research into the causes and treatments of neurodevelopmental disorders, including autism, fragile X syndrome and learning disabilities. For further information, go to http://www.mindinstitute.org.