Dr. Kyle Fink, UC Davis Institute for Regenerative Cures will present “Advancing DNA-binding domain therapeutics for the treatment of genetically-linked neurological disorders using cell and gene therapy".
The Fink lab focuses on genetically-linked neurological disorders such as CDKL5- deficiency (rare intractable epilepsy), Rett Syndrome, Juvenile Huntington’s disease, Huntington’s disease, Angelman Syndrome, and Jordan’s Syndrome. Gene variants linked to disease phenotype are examined for “actionable domains” for which we create therapeutic artificial transcription factors through the use of DNA-binding domains such as Zinc Fingers, Transcription Activator-like Effector and CRISPR/Cas9.
My group is focused on making epigenetic modifications to the genome in a targeted fashion using a variety of effector domains that result in up- or down-regulation of a specific gene. The lab develops these modifiers for the human genome and utilizes patient samples to perform proof-of-concept studies. Patient-derived samples are used to create in vitro neuronal disease-in-a-dish models. Current research is focused on two major goals: 1) The therapeutic application of Zinc Fingers, transcription activator-like effector (TALE) and clustered regularly interspaced short palindrome repeats (CRISPR) to modify gene expression in genetically-linked neurological diseases; and 2) the development of delivery systems that can safely and efficaciously target the central nervous system with our novel gene editing platforms.
Date: Friday, April 19, 2019
Time: 4:00 PM
Location: Sci B 133