The annual retreat for the Genetics Training Program will be held on Thursday, June 5, 2014, from 9 am to noon in the Kahn Auditorium, BSRB (Biomedical Science and Research Building) 109 Zina Pitcher Place. At 10 am, Dr. Meisler, Director of the Training Grant from 2000 to 2014, will present the keynote lecture, "Genetic Approaches to Neurological Disease: 20 Years of Student Discoveries." Meisler is Professor of Human Genetics and Neurology, and Myron Levine Distinguished University Professor. Her research employs mouse models to understand the molecular mechanisms underlying neurological disorders. Her laboratory identified the first human mutations in sodium channels SCN1A and SCN8A responsible for epilepsy and developental delay, and mutations of phosphlipid metabolism responsible for peripheral nerve disorders and defects in neuronal migration.

Three graduates of the Genetics Training Program who carried out thesis research in the Meisler lab and contributed to the work she will be discussing will also be featured on the program. They will present updates on their current research and career paths since leaving the University of Michigan. Beginning at 9:00 a.m., Nicholas Plummer, Ph.D., Staff Scientist at the NIH/NIEHS in North Carolina, will present "New Mouse Strains for Manipulating Genetically Defined Subpopulations of Central Norepinephrine Neurons"; David Buchner, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Genetics at Case Western University, will present "Understanding the Complex Genetic Basis of Obesity and Glucose Homeostasis"; and Janelle O'Brien, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Research Scholar at the University of Iowa, will present "Treatment of Retinal Degeneration in a Mouse Model of Bardet-Biedl Syndrome."

A Poster Session and Reception will follow the keynote lecture.

Contact the Department of Human Genetics at 734-764-5490 for more information.