Probing the Causes and Consequences of Nongenetic Variation

Event Details

Type

Monday Lecture Series

Speaker(s)

Lamia Wahba, Ph.D., assistant professor and head, Laboratory of Non-canonical Modes of Inheritance, The Rockefeller University

Speaker bio(s)

There is much excitement about the potential of nongenetic inheritance to explain (still-unexplained) aspects of phenotypic variability, disease risks and evolutionary trajectories. However, despite extensive study and even more extensive speculation, our understanding of the rules governing nongenetic inheritance and its relative importance for evolutionary processes remains incomplete. To this end the Wahba lab is dissecting the causes and consequences of nongenetic changes by studying small RNA systems within and across nematode species. This talk discusses the approaches being taken to address the following set of questions: (i) what regulates the variability and persistence of an organisms’ small RNA-ome? (ii) to what extent do the specific molecular factors that promote (and constrain) small RNA inheritance vary across phylogenetic and environmental contexts? (iii) what are the consequences of small RNA mechanisms on the occurrence of genetic changes? Through this work Dr. Wahba hopes to further our understanding of the various avenues through which nongenetic inheritance exerts its influence on processes of disease and evolution, and the elegant solutions organisms employ to limit potentially deleterious outcomes.

Lamia Wahba did her Ph.D. research in the lab of Doug Koshland, graduating from the University of California, Berkeley, in 2014. She was a postdoc in Andy Fire’s laboratory at Stanford before joining Rockefeller as assistant professor in 2023. She has been named a Helen Hay Whitney Foundation Fellow and was awarded an Irma T. Hirschl and Monique Weill-Caulier Trust Research Award.

MLS lectures are only open to the RU community and will be taking place in Carson Family Auditorium and virtually via Zoom. Virtual participants are required to log in with their RU Zoom account and use their RU email address and password for authentication. We recommend signing out of VPN prior to logging in to the lecture. Please do not share the link or post on social media.

Open to

Campus Only