25th Annual Roland D. Pinkham, M.D., Basic Science Lectureship

Diversity and Evolution of the Human Genome: From "Origins" to Evo-Devo

Friday, November 18, 2011
Glaser Auditorium
Swedish Medical Center/First Hill

    
The theory of evolution is under constant construction. As Darwin posits in his epic book, The Origin of Species, natural selection is the driving force of evolution, a concept born of his vast store of observations and woven together by his organizing insight. Yet, Darwin was frustrated: he pined to know the underlying mechanisms by which variation unfolded among living organisms. In the 150 years since Origins, researchers in genetics and molecular biology have made great strides in filling in the underlying details of evolution with discoveries that Darwin could not have imagined. Adaptation has arisen through competition for food, sexual selection and environmental pressures. Our genome has been modified by viral imports and our anatomy and physiology modified by accumulated alterations. The 25th Annual Roland D. Pinkham, M.D. Basic Science Lectureship brings together seven prominent researchers to shed light on the biology underlying the process of evolution, to present some of the remarkable discoveries that continue to mold this emerging field and to predict their impact on medical research.