The Penn State Lectures on the Frontiers of Science is a series of Saturday-morning lectures begun in 1995 by a group of Penn State Eberly College of Science faculty in the Center for Gravitational Physics and Geometry. It was an innovative move for our college because these lectures were designed for the enjoyment and education of average citizens rather than for a specialized audience composed exclusively of scientists, as were our other annual lectures at that time. Abhay Ashtekar, director of the center and holder of the Eberly Family Chair in Physics, explained at that time, "One of the missions of the center is to improve scientific literacy both on and off campus by presenting such public lectures." (more history)

 

 

Free Public Lecture on 28 January: "How Genes That Control Embryonic Development Shape Evolution"

20 January 2006—A free public lecture titled "How Genes That Control Embryonic Development Shape Evolution" will be given on Saturday, 28 January 2006, by Pamela J. Mitchell, associate professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at Penn State. The event is the second of five weekly lectures in the 2006 Penn State Lectures on the Frontiers of Science, an annual series designed as a free minicourse for the enjoyment and education of residents in Central Pennsylvania communities. The theme of the series this year is "Change Happens: Understanding How Living Things Evolve." The lecture will take place from 11:00 a.m. to about 12:30 p.m. in 100 Thomas Building on the Penn State University Park Campus.

Mitchell will discuss recent research that has revealed a core network of evolving gene famlies, which control the establishment and growth of a developing embryo's body plan and nervous system. Changes in these genes alter an animal's structure and thereby "shape" the course of evolution. This research has spawned the new discipline of evolutionary developmental biology, which combines the study of embryonic development with modern molecular genetics and comparative genomics. Mitchell will discuss some of the key findings and insights of this new field.

In her research, Mitchell uses molecular genetic techniques to study gene expression in developing embryos of fruitflies and mice. "In recent years, developmental biologists studying model organisms as different as flies, fish, frogs, birds, and mice have found themselves working on increasing complementary lines as they uncovered a "tool kit" of genes that control body-plan specification," says Mitchell. "Much of my laboratory's research is focused on a tool-kit gene called AP-2, which encodes a DNA-binding transcription factor with essential roles in development of the nervous system, head, and limbs. This gene has also turned out to be a tumor-suppressor gene in several types of cancer, so understanding its roles and regulation is important from several different perspectives."

Mitchell earned a bachelors degree in biology with a minor in chemistry, cum laude, at Rhode Island College in 1975. She earned a M.A. degree, a M.Phil. degree, and a Ph.D. degree in biological sciences at Columbia University in 1985. She was a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Biochemistry at the University of California at Berkeley from 1986 to 1990. Mitchell joined the University of Zurich (Switzerland) in 1990 as an independent group leader at the Institute of Molecular Biology and in 1995 became independent group leader at the Institute of Pharmacology. She joined the Penn State faculty in the spring of 1999.

The remaining events in the 2006 Penn State Lectures on the Frontiers of Science include:

• "How Genes Evolve: Toward a Unified Theory of Biology" on Saturday, 4 February, in 100 Thomas Building by Kenneth M. Weiss, Evan Pugh Professor of Anthropology and Genetics at Penn State.
• "Something Old, Something New… The Human Body as an Evolutionary Patchwork" on Saturday, 11 February, in 100 Thomas Building by Alan Walker, Evan Pugh Professor of Anthropology and Biology.
• "The Human Mind as an Evolutionary Patchwork" on Saturday, 18 February, in 100 Thomas Building by Jeffrey A. Kurland, Associate Professor of Anthropology and Human Development.

The Penn State Lectures on the Frontiers of Science are sponsored by the Penn State Eberly College of Science, with additional financial support provided by Pfizer Inc.

Thomas Building is located at the intersection of Pollock and Shortlidge Roads on the Penn State University Park Campus. Free parking is available in the Eisenhower Parking Deck behind Eisenhower Auditorium on Shortlidge Road. For access assistance, contact the Eberly College of Science Office of Public Information by telephone at (814) 863-0901 or by e-mail at science@psu.edu. For more information about the Penn State Lectures on the Frontiers of Science, click on the web link at <www.science.psu.edu/alert/frontiers>

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