CARTA: The Genetics of Humanness: Alysson Muotri - Comparisons of Human and Ape Stem Cells

Ajit Varki, Distinguished Professor in the Departments of Medicine and Cellular & Molecular Medicine, Co-Director of CARTA, and Co-Director of the Glycobiology Research and Training Center at the University of California, San Diego, focuses on a family of cell surface sugars called the sialic acids, and their roles in biology, evolution and disease. Series: "CARTA - Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny" [Science] [Show ID: 21987]

Genevieve Konopka is an Assistant Professor of Neuroscience at UT Southwestern Medical Center. The focus of her research is elucidating how developmental signaling pathways are disrupted in neuropsychiatric illnesses, and identifying human-specific pathways that are vulnerable to neuropsychiatric disease. Series: "CARTA - Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny" [Science] [Show ID: 21986]

Yoav Gilad is Associate Professor of Human Genetics at the University of Chicago. He studies genetic and regulatory differences between humans and our close evolutionary relatives, with the long-term goal of identifying the genetic basis for human-specific traits, including genetic variation that underlies higher susceptibility to certain diseases and disorders in humans than in other primates. Series: "CARTA - Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny" [Science] [Show ID: 21985]

Katherine Pollard, Associate Investigator at the Gladstone Institutes and Associate Professor of Biostatistics at UC San Francisco, specializes in evolutionary genomics, in particular identifying genome sequences that differ significantly between or within species and their relationship to biomedical traits. Series: "CARTA - Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny" [Science] [Show ID: 21984]

Evan Eichler is an Associate Professor of Genome Sciences at the University of Washington. The long-term goal of his research is to understand the evolution, pathology and mechanisms of recent gene duplication and DNA transposition within the human genome. Series: "CARTA - Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny" [Science] [Show ID: 21982]