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Friday Evening Lecture Series
07/13/07
"Spina Bifida and Failure to Close the Neural Tube: Genetic Defects and Therapies"
Lee Niswander, University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Introduction by Marianne Bronner-Fraser
A special lecture to commemorate the lives of Laura and Arthur Colwin
Lecture Abstract:
The neural tube is the embryonic precursor of the central nervous system (CNS), the brain and spinal cord. One of the most common human birth defects is a failure to close the neural tube. However, our understanding of this complex embryonic event is limited by our knowledge of the genes that control neural tube closure or how these genes work. To gain insight into this complex processes, the Niswander lab is using genetics and model organisms to identify the genes that are critically required for neural tube and to determine how they act. Microscopy is also being used to visualize this dynamic process in real time. This is providing new insight into the normal events of neural tube closure and is beginning to unravel the answers to what goes wrong when the neural tube does not close properly. Our long-term goal is to understand how dietary supplements like folic acid help to prevent neural tube defects and to identify new therapies to correct folate-resistant neural tube defects.
Lee Niswander is a Professor of Pediatrics and Section Head of Developmental Biology at the University of Colorado Heath Sciences Center. She is also an Investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and co-director of the MBL’s Embryology course. Dr. Niswander’s research is focused on the genetic and cellular mechanisms that control embryonic development, particularly the processes required for closure of the neural tube and for development of the vertebrate limb and lung. From 1993 to 2004, Dr. Niswander was a member of the Molecular Biology and Developmental Biology Programs at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York City. She received a B.A. in Chemistry from University of Colorado, Boulder in 1980, an M.S. in Biochemistry, Biophysics and Genetics from the University of Colorado Heath Sciences Center in 1985, and a Ph.D. in Genetics from Case Western Reserve University in 1990. She was a postdoctoral fellow with G.R. Martin at the University of California, San Francisco where she studied limb development. Dr. Niswander’s honors include a Pew Scholars Award, a Presidential Early Career Award for scientists and engineers, and the Harland Winfield Mossman Developmental Biologist Award. She currently serves on the editorial board of Developmental Biology and is an Ad Hoc reviewer at the National Institute of Health (NIH) in multiple study sections. Dr. Niswander is also a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee for the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation.
Marianne Bronner-Fraser will introduce Dr. Niswander. Dr. Bronner-Fraser is the Albert Billings Ruddock Chair and a professor in the Division of Biology at the California Institute of Technology. Her research focuses on analyzing the cellular and molecular events underlying the formation, cell lineage decisions, and migration of neural crest cells. Dr. Bronner-Fraser received her Sc. B. from Brown University and her Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University in biophysics. At the MBL, Dr. Bronner-Fraser was the Forbes Lecturer in 1999 and served as a co-director of the Embryology Course from 1997 to 2001.
This Friday Evening Lecture celebrates and commemorates the lives of Laura and Arthur Colwin. The Colwins met at the MBL as students in the 1930s. They later married and returned to the MBL nearly every summer thereafter, conducting ground-breaking research in embryology and fertilization. They became members of the Corporation, served terms on the Board of Trustees, and later became Trustees Emeriti. In the 1950s, the Colwins used the nascent technology of electron microscopy to describe morphologically what happens when a sperm first encounters an egg during fertilization. In 2002 the Colwins made an extraordinary gift of $2.3 million to the MBL to establish the Laura and Arthur Colwin Endowed Summer Research Fellowship Fund, which provides support for independent investigators conducting research in the fields of cell and developmental biology. Laura Colwin passed away in December 2006, following Arthur who died in November 2003. In keeping with their love of the MBL and Woods Hole, the Colwins are buried together at the Church of the Messiah.
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