IN-PERSON: Molecules, Cells, and Fluids for a Healthy Brain

This hybrid lecture will be held both in-person and online. If you would like to attend the lecture virtually, register here for the Zoom webinar details.

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Dr. Monuki, a Southern California native, received his B.S. in Biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1984, then earned his M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of California San Diego in 1994. For his graduate studies, he worked on the development of myelinating glial cells with Greg Lemke at the Salk Institute. Dr. Monuki then moved to Boston for his residency training in Anatomic Pathology at the Massachusetts General Hospital, followed by a fellowship in Neuropathology at the Brigham & Women’s Hospital and Children’s Hospital. He then became a staff neuropathologist at the Brigham and Children’s Hospitals and Instructor in Pathology at the Harvard Medical School while carrying out his postdoctoral research with Chris Walsh at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. As a postdoc, Dr. Monuki used mouse genetics to study cerebral cortex development, and he continued these studies when he started as an Assistant Professor at UCI in 2001. Dr. Monuki is board-certified in Anatomic Pathology and Neuropathology, and is a staff neuropathologist at the UCI Medical Center. Now an Associate Professor, Dr. Monuki also currently serves as Vice-Chair for Research for the Department of Pathology and is a standing member of the NIH Neurogenesis and Cell Fate study section. In his spare time, he plays the piano, chases his kids, and roots for the Lakers.

Dr. La Spada graduated Summa Cum Laude from the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in Biology in 1986. While an MD - PhD student at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Dr. La Spadaidentified the cause of X-linked spinal & bulbar muscular atrophy (SBMA) as an expansion of a trinucleotide repeat in the androgen receptor gene. As the first disorder shown to be caused by an expanded repeat tract, this discovery of a novel type of genetic mutation led to the emergence of a new field of study. After completing training as a Clinical Genetics fellow and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Physician Postdoctoral Fellow, He joined the faculty at the University of Washington Medical Center in 1998, and became a Professor of Laboratory Medicine, Medicine (Medical Genetics), Pathology, and Neurology (Neurogenetics). In 2009, Heaccepted the position of Professor and Division Head of Genetics in Pediatrics, Cellular & Molecular Medicine, and Neurosciences at the University of California, San Diego, and was a founding faculty member of the UCSD Institute for Genomic Medicine and Sanford Consortium for Regenerative Medicine. He was then recruited as the founding Director of the Duke Center for Neurodegeneration & Neurotherapeutics, was appointed Distinguished Professor of Neurology, Neurobiology, and Cell Biology, and held the Lincoln Financial Endowed Chair at the Duke University School of Medicine. In 2020, He joined the faculty of the University of California Irvine as Distinguished Professor of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine and Neurology, and founded the UCI Institute for Neurotherapeutics which he directs. He also currently serves as the Associate Dean for Research Development at the UC Irvine School of Medicine.

Host or Publisher Sue & Bill Gross Stem Cell Research Center