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Bears hibernate. Deep-diving seals stay submerged for over an hour. Fruit bats live on pure sugar. Over millions of years, these exceptional mammals evolved to thrive under conditions that make humans sick. What can the genetic changes behind their abilities teach us about our own genome? Join molecular biologist Elinor Karlsson as she explains why studying other mammals' genomes can unlock the secrets of our own.
This free talk is open to members of the general public and is appropriate for high school students and beyond.
Speaker
Elinor Karlsson is the director of the Vertebrate Genomics Group at Broad and a professor in bioinformatics and integrative biology at UMass Chan Medical School. She is excited by the potential for using our own evolutionary history to understand how the human genome works, and in how that knowledge can lead to advances in healthcare. Her key projects include the Zoonomia Project, an international effort to compare hundreds of different mammalian genomes and identify critically important segments of DNA; and Darwin's Ark, a community science nonprofit that engages pets and their people in scientific research.
The Broad Discovery Series brings researchers to the stage to discuss and answer questions about some of the most pressing topics in science and medicine today. Held in-person and virtually at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, these free public events explore the genetic and biological roots of human health and disease, the mechanisms that govern how our cells and bodies function, new technologies that are changing what's possible in science, and the progress being made to translate these findings into treatments for common and rare diseases.
Please visit broad.io/DiscoveryLive to access the event live stream at the time of the event.