Dr. David Katz | Katz Lab

View Katz's biosketch here.
 

Abstract:
The Katz lab is focused on the heritability of histone modifications and how this heritability contributes to traits and disease. We demonstrated in C. elegans how histone modifications can be trans-generationally maintained and lead to heritable phenotypes ranging from sterility and longevity to behavior. 

These phenotypes demonstrate the histone modifications can serve as heritable information across generations. Based on these data, we have engineered a new mouse model where maternal epigenetic reprograming activity of the H3K4me1/2 demethylase LSD1/KDM1A is compromised. 

These maternally compromised mice exhibit inherited phenotypes that manifest postnatally, including perinatal lethality, developmental delay, craniofacial defects and altered behavior. These phenotypes include all of those found in the corresponding Kabuki-syndrome-like human patients, raising the possibility that maternal defects may contribute to phenotypes in LSD1 patients and Kabuki syndrome. 

Finally, we made the surprising discovery that loss of LSD1 in adult mice leads to neurodegeneration. Following up on this result, we generated significant data suggesting that LSD1 functions specifically in the pathological tau pathway. Pathological tau is thought to be a critical driver of neurodegeneration in Alzheimer’s disease. Based on our data, we propose that pathological tau contributes to neuronal cell death in Alzheimer’s disease by sequestering LSD1 in the cytoplasm and interfering with the continuous requirement for LSD1 to epigenetically repress transcription associated with alternative cell fates. Thus, it may be possible to target LSD1 therapeutically to block tau-mediated neurodegeneration. 

Watch the seminar here!

Dr. Brandon Logeman

Bio:
Brandon L. Logeman, PhD is a new Assistant Professor in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry, College of Medicine, University of Kentucky. After completing his Ph.D. at Duke University, he joined the lab of Catherine Dulac at Harvard University to study the molecular mechanisms through which changes in cell-type specific gene expression influence neural activity and animal behavior. After receiving a K99/R00 Career Transition Award he joined the University of Kentucky in August 2025. His new lab will utilize custom designed single-cell genomics technologies such as microfluidic, droplet based sequencing assays and imaging based spatial transcriptomics as well as de novo protein binder design across a panel of genetically diverse mouse strains to discover how genomic and environmental influences contribute to observable differences in animal behavior.

Abstract:
Parental care is composed of multiple infant-directed behaviors that promote offspring survival and is influenced by the sex and physiological state of the caregiver. Previous work in mice has identified the medial preoptic area of the hypothalamus as a key brain area implicated in parental behaviors. However, numerous naturalistic behaviors and homeostatic processes are controlled by this area, hindering mechanistic investigation of the circuits underlying parental care. To overcome this challenge, here I employ cell-type specific RNA- and ATAC-seq analysis, neural activity recording, and perturbation to gain access into molecular, biophysical, and circuit-based causality of behavioral control. I find that various neuronal types involved in parenting behavior are each distinctively influenced by the sex and physiological status of an individual and uncover how cell-type specific regulatory programs alter gene expression and neural activity underlying behavior control. These results demonstrate how cell-type specific transcriptional responses to internal physiological cues mediate circuit specific alterations to neural activity and ultimately influence animal behavior.

Dr. Jordan Okie | Okie Additional Information

Biosketch:
Jordan Okie is a research professor in the School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University. Motivated by a variety of field experiences spanning the extremes of life and its environments, his research aims to understand patterns of biodiversity, scaling, metabolism and macroevolution across levels of organization, from tiny prokaryotes to giant multicellular organisms, ecosystems, colonies and technological systems. His research combines mathematical theory and modeling, bioinformatics, microbial experiments and the compilation and analysis of comparative data sets. He is also concerned with issues of Anthropocene ecology and sustainability, authoring a book and widely-cited papers on these topics. Recent notable papers include work on the rarity of prokaryote endosymbioses, genomic adaptations in whole-ecosystem experiments and the development of the Equilibrium Theory of Biodiversity Dynamics. 

He earned a Ph.D. in biology from the University of New Mexico in 2011 and has held fellowships and visiting appointments with NASA’s Astrobiology Institute, the Czech Science Foundation’s Center for Theoretical Study and the Santa Fe Institute. He joined the faculty at ASU in 2015 and teaches courses on astrobiology, biogeochemistry and ecology.

Abstract:
The diversity, size and complexity of living things on Earth today vary widely across the globe, following some general patterns of distribution whose underlying mechanisms remain hotly contested. The evolution of the largest and most complex living things required some 3.8 billion years and massive amounts of energy. 

This seminar will explore the general ecological, evolutionary, physiological and genomic factors limiting and shaping this extraordinary biological variation across space and time. The seminar will present theory, experiments and comparative analyses revealing the role of biological innovations, including evolutionary transitions in individuality in facilitating the evolution of larger-bodied living things. 

The seminar will cover work on metabolic scaling, metabolic modeling, metagenomics and biodiversity theory that sheds light on the role of energetic constraints in shaping the distribution and evolution of the biodiversity, body size and hierarchical complexity of living things, from prokaryotes to single-celled eukaryotes, complex endosymbioses, multicellular organisms, holobionts, superorganisms and technological systems.

Watch the seminar here.

Dr. Filipa ​Rijo-Ferreira | ​Rijo-Ferreira Lab

Bio:
Rijo-Ferreira is an assistant professor of public health and molecular and cellular biology at the University of California, Berkeley, and an investigator at the Chan Zuckerberg BioHub. Rijo-Ferreira earned a Ph.D. from University of Porto, Portugal, followed by postdoctoral training at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. The Rijo-Ferreira lab takes an integrated approach to study circadian rhythms in parasitic diseases, in particular Malaria and Sleeping sickness. Rijo-Ferreira is an NIH Pathway to Independence awardee, a NIH Director’s New Innovator awardee and a Searle scholar. Moreover, Rijo-Ferreira was recently named a HHMI Freeman Hrabowski Scholar, which recognizes outstanding early career faculty for their research and commitment to mentoring.