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Science and Ideas Group - The Genetics of Behavior
Registration is recommended
RSVP: Joseph Evinger (jdevinger@comcast.net)
When: Every 2nd Thursday of the month, 3:00-4:30 pm
Where: Zoom (click "Zoom" to join event)
Meeting ID: 848 0146 1083
Passcode: science
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+1 669 900 9128
Meeting ID: 848 0146 1083
Open to: All
Science and Ideas Group Presents - The Genetics of Behavior
Presenter:
Dr Jonathan Flint, Billy and Audrey Wilder Professor of Psychiatry and Neuroscience at UCLA
Description of talk:
Dr. Flint will illustrate the difficulties involved in finding the genetic basis of behavior, and with his own work attempting to find the genes involved in major depressive disorder. Starting with what we know from twin and family studies, he will show how it became possible to find genetic variants that alter the risk of psychiatric disease. In the case of depression, this has proved more difficult than expected, and he will explain how he set about tackling this problem. Dr. Flint will describe the work they have carried out with large cohorts of women who have recurrent depression, explaining the difficulties of establishing and running the very large-scale studies required to find robust markers of genetic risk.
Short biography:
Dr Jonathan Flint is a psychiatrist and geneticist who until 2016, when he moved to UCLA, was a professor at the University of Oxford in the UK. He is now one of the leaders of UCLA’s Depression Grand Challenge, which aims to identify the causes of depression and use that information to design new treatments. His research has focused on understanding the genetic determinants of behavior, using both animal models and human studies. Most recently he has worked with colleagues in China and Korea to recruit participants to studies that aim to identify the causes of depression, using genetic strategies. Dr. Flint is also involved in work that seeks to use voice recordings and what are called “digital phenotypes” (the data collected from cell phones and wearable devices) to identify changes in mood.