Speaker:  Timothy W. Bredy, PhD, Associate Professor, NHMRC Senior Research Fellow, Queensland Brain Institute, The University of Queensland, Australia  

Bio:  Associate Professor Timothy Bredy earned a PhD in Neuroscience from McGill University in 2004. Following CIHR and NSERC funded postdoctoral fellowships at UCLA, he established the Cognitive Neuroepigenetics Laboratory at the University of Queensland in 2009. He is currently an NHMRC Senior Research Fellow. Research in the Bredy laboratory is focused on understanding how the genome is connected to the environment, and how this relationship shapes brain and behaviour throughout life. The group is particularly interested in neuroepigenetic mechanisms including DNA and histone modifications, as well as RNA based mechanisms such as non-coding RNA and RNA modification, and how they regulate the formation and maintenance of memory. Timothy W. Bredy, PhD, Associate Professor, NHMRC Senior Research Fellow, Queensland Brain Institute, The University of Queensland, Australia  

Abstract: RNA, once thought to simply represent an intermediate step in the transition from DNA code to the proteome, has increasingly been recognised as a critical feature of information processing in the brain. This is due, in part, to the discovery that the majority of our genes do not code for protein but instead generate a diverse population of regulatory RNAs that function in a cell-type and state-dependent manner. In addition, dysregulated RNA metabolism is involved in a variety of brain disorders including neuropsychiatric conditions such as phobia and PTSD, and neurodegenerative disorders including ALS and epilepsy. RNA therefore represents a new frontier in the quest to design new treatment approaches for brain disorders. This talk will focus on my labs journey through the world of RNA in neuroscience over the a past 15 years, highlighting new avenues for exploration along the way.